TAKING ON THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS. Integration of network industries as a tool of peace building (ESI - European Stability Initiative, 2000)
The key international objectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina are building an effective state, breaking the hold of unaccountable war-time power structures, creating conditions for economic growth, and laying a basis for closer association with European institutions, in particular with the European Union. An international focus on institution building at the commanding heights of the political economy offers an outstanding opportunity to advance each of these goals. International funding during the last years has often had the unintended effect of consolidating the ethnically divided war economies. A more sophisticated use of international influence could now ensure that the regulatory frameworks established for key industries advance the broader political and economic objectives of the peace process. Telecommunications and electricity, like coal and steel in the 1950s in Western Europe, are a natural starting point for functional integration of the Bosnian state