Prof. Dr. Velibor Lalić Delivers Lecture in Italy on Constitutional Crisis and Security in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Prof. Dr. Velibor Lalić participated in the international summer school PNRR-TNE International Mobility Programme – Assessing Constitutional Crisis Impact and Security (IMP-ACCTS), which was held from October 20 to October 25, 2025, in Como and Milan (Italy), organized by the University of Milano-Bicocca.

As part of the program, Dr. Lalić delivered a lecture on the topic “Security Implications of the Constitutional Crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between the Dayton Constitutional Framework and International Interventionism,” in which he analyzed the political and security consequences of prolonged international interventionism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As he pointed out, the actions of international actors, especially the Office of the High Representative (OHR), often lead to altering the political balance established by the Dayton Peace Agreement, thereby creating new sources of instability. Instead of reconciliation and building functional institutions, such policies have, according to him, contributed to the deepening of ethnic divisions and the weakening of trust in democratic processes.

Professor Lalić emphasized that the stability and long-term security of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be built through secessionist threats, nor through a neocolonial approach of international administration, but rather through a return to the principles of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the strengthening of internal political dialogue.

“A sustainable constitutional order cannot be imposed from the outside – it must stem from an agreement within society, from political balance and mutual respect,” Dr. Lalić stated during the lecture.

The case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as he concluded, offers broader lessons as well: it shows that peace, stability, and legitimacy in post-conflict societies depend on domestic political ownership of processes and readiness for compromise, rather than on the external imposition of solutions.