Constructing a ceasefire : The Politics of Language and Peace in the Dayton Agreement

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how the Dayton Agreement constructs representations of conflict,governance and political identity through language and institutional design. The study is guidedby Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach and draws uponpost-structuralist perspectives on discourse and power. The purpose of the thesis is to analyzehow the Dayton Agreement represents the Bosnian conflict and how these representationsbecome embedded within post-conflict political structures.Methodologically, the thesis employs a qualitative case study design based on qualitativedocument analysis of selected annexes and constitutional provisions of the Dayton Agreement.The analysis focuses on how political problems are constructed through representations ofethnonational division, territorial separation and institutionalized power-sharing.The main findings show that the Dayton Agreement represents the conflict mainly as a problemof ethnic division requiring continuous institutional management through separation, balanceand group representation. The thesis argues that the Dayton Agreement did not only end the warbut also institutionalized certain understandings of identity, governance and peace that continueto shape political and social life in Bosnia and Herzegovina after 1995.