Bosnia and Herzegovina

This book provides a detailed understanding of how different types of engagements impact upon the reform and EU integration of the Western Balkan region. It examines the influence of Russia, China, Turkey and the UAE in the region and analyses the range of existing links.

Contributors offer an academic and multifaceted perspective of the role of external and non-Western actors in the region that goes beyond, on the one hand, the tendency of some Western decision makers to perceive all engagement by third powers as a sinister threat and, on the other, the view of regional governments of all external involvement as a boon coming at a time of Western neglect and reduced foreign investments. By looking at the importance of Russia, Turkey, China and the UAE in the Western Balkans, the book sheds light on one key arena of global competition, offers new insights on the strengths and weaknesses of Euro–Atlantic integration and advances our knowledge of foreign policy and its economic, social and security dimensions for small and medium-sized countries.

In the 4:1 series of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade, four experts give a short answer to the same question concerning international politics and economics. Our aim is to launch scientific debates in and beyond Hungary and promote dialogue among experts. In this issue our topic is “How do external powers perceive the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina?”

Background: Children's exposure to violence is a major public health issue. The Balkan epidemiological study on Child Abuse and Neglect project aimed to collect internationally comparable data on violence exposures in childhood. Methods: A three stage stratified random sample of 42,194 school‑attending children (response rate: 66.7%) in three grades (aged 11, 13 and 16 years) was drawn from schools in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Children completed the ICAST‑C questionnaire, which measures children's exposure to violence by any perpetrator. Results: Exposure rates for psychological violence were between 64.6% (FYROM) and 83.2% (Greece) for lifetime and 59.62% (Serbia) and 70.0% (Greece) for past‑year prevalence. Physical violence exposure varied between 50.6% (FYROM) and 76.3% (Greece) for lifetime and 42.5% (FYROM) and 51.0% (Bosnia) for past‑year prevalence. Sexual violence figures were highest for lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (18.6%) and lowest in FYROM (7.6%). Lifetime contact sexual violence was highest in Bosnia (9.8%) and lowest in Romania (3.6%). Past‑year sexual violence and contact sexual violence prevalence was lowest in Romania (5.0 and 2.1%) and highest in Bosnia (13.6 and 7.7% respectively). Self‑reported neglect was highest for both past‑year and lifetime prevalence in Bosnia (48.0 and 20.3%) and lowest in Romania (22.6 and 16.7%). Experiences of positive parental practices were reported by most participating children in all countries. Conclusions: Where significant differences in violence exposure by sex were observed, males reported higher expo‑ sure to past‑year and lifetime sexual violence and females higher exposure to neglect. Children in Balkan countries experience a high burden of violence victimization and national‑level programming and child protection policy mak‑ ing is urgently needed to address this.

Razmeđe koje će se ovdje obraditi tiče se smjene dvije imperije na prostoru Bosne i Hercegovine – otomanske i austrougarske. Naglasak će ipak biti na drugom segmentu s obzirom na obim i ciljeve knjige: ovdje se akcentuje određeni period ne težeći pri tom da se nivelišu drugi periodi s obzirom na složenost društvenog konteksta i uopće društvenog determinizma, a posebno ako imamo u vidu genealogiju okcidentalizma, orijentalizma i između njih ugniježđenog balkanizma. Kada govorimo o bh. ženi u periodu austrougarske uprave (bilo da govorimo o ženi kao takvoj, ženama kao posebnoj društvenoj grupi ili pak o ženama koje su se istakle u različitim domenima svoga rada ali i svakodnevice) ne možemo a da se ne osvrnemo na svojevrsni duh vremena na razmeđima različitih epoha.

Over the last two decades, the world has experienced a boom in the number of hydropower projects. Considered an important part of sustainable development, particularly in post-socialist transition and developing countries, it is claimed that hydropower plants will make substantial contributions to environmentally friendly economic growth and poverty eradication. However, the so-called 'hydropower boom' has not resulted in a global mass construction of plants. In general, over-ambitious planning, a lack of funding opportunities and corruption are often put forward as explanations for the discrepancy between the number of plans and actual construction of hydropower plants. In this paper, it is added to these three reasons, illustrating with a case study from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the planning of hydropower projects very rarely results in their construction. The results are based on secondary data and primary data, i.e. semi-structured interviews and informal talks, collected during fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The data was analyzed using the analytical induction method. The results highlight how administrative complexity, over-estimations of exploitable capacity, an unattractive sociopolitical and socioeconomic situation and how these factors in combination create the conditions for various practices of corruption hinder the construction of plants. Comparing the results with other findings from around the world, the paper suggests approaching the so-called global hydropower boom with caution.