A People’s Peace Process for Bosnia and Herzegovina? COLIN IRWIN Institute of Governance, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK ABSTRACT Public opinion polling has been used in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Cyprus to develop policies and agreements that have wide popular support. Using the same methods of inter-track public diplomacy, a poll was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004 to find out what the people there believe needs to be done to achieve reconciliation, economic self- sustainability and effective government in the future. Apart from the controversial topic of responsibility for the war, the poll demonstrated a strong consensus on the way ahead, including municipal and constitutional reform, if undertaken in the context of economic development and EU accession. An ongoing programme of such research should help politicians, their electorate and the international community to achieve these objectives. Giving the People Ownership of Their Own Peace Process Negotiating peace agreements that can stand the test of time is very difficult. But recent experience tells us that when the people and the politicians can bring a peace process and political process together, as one common enterprise, then the possibilities for success are greatly increased (Irwin, 2004). In Israel and Palestine the peace process can still best be described in terms of occupation and conflict and the political process as disagreement. In Cyprus peace is maintained by the presence of a UN force but the opening of crossings along the line of division in 2003 was a welcome development. Regrettably the political process in Cyprus continues to be marked by failure, where the wishes of the people have had little impact on negotiations held largely behind closed doors (House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, 2005). In Northern Ireland most people believe ‘the war is over’ and, although the Belfast Agreement has its problems, it was endorsed by the people in a referendum and is accepted as the basis for any future political accommodation. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the Dayton Agreement brought an end to the war but the presence of an international force is still required to maintain the peace. The international community wants to disengage but may not be able to do so until the peace process and political process are ‘as one’; to do that they need policies and agreements that have wide popular support and legitimacy. Ethnopolitics, Vol. 4, No. 3, 311–328, September 2005 Correspondence Address: Colin Irwin, Institute of Governance, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK. Email: c.irwin@qub.ac.uk 1744-9057 Print=1744-9065 Online=05=030311–18 # 2005 The Editor of Ethnopolitics DOI: 10.1080=17449050500239635