CIAO DATE: 02/06

Foreign Policy-Making in the Clinton Administration: Reassessing Bosnia and the "Turning Point" of 1995

Abstract

The conflict that ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 was one of the central international problems that the Clinton White House had to face during its first term. The "issue from hell", as Warren Christopher famously dubbed it in 1993, was emblematic of the Clinton administration's failure, during the period of January 1993 to late summer 1995, to formulate foreign policies that could produce the results desired by the policy-makers in the West Wing.

Bosnia caused the administration many headaches during those two and a half years, but it also illustrates Clinton's comeback on foreign affairs. On the surface, a dramatic change in the administration's handling of the Bosnian question can be observed starting in late August 1995, when the administration adopted a policy that proved successful. Strategic bombing by NATO forced the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table and a peace accord was struck under American leadership at Dayton, Ohio, the following November. The Dayton Accords, officially signed by the parties on December 14 in Paris, formalized the cease-fire and provided for the deployment of American ground troops as part of the IFOR mission, ending the war in Bosnia.

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