Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political leaders need to have a hard conversation among themselves about BiH’s path to NATO. We know what we think, and what many ordinary people tell us they want: Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to take the next steps towards NATO. But some of you might be asking why you should care about NATO membership, and we know still others don’t agree that NATO membership is right for BiH. To ultimately become a NATO member country is an important decision that can only be taken by you, not by anyone else. So let’s take a moment to explain what NATO means for ordinary citizens. To put it simply, NATO is important not just for the guarantee of security and stability it offers through the commitment Allies take to defend each other, but also because it offers a clear path for security and rule-of-law reforms that will help to improve the lives of ordinary citizens. If you want positive change in BiH, moving towards NATO is a great way to do it.
But while NATO’s door remains open, the path is – intentionally – a tough one: the idea of collective defense, which is at the heart of the NATO Alliance, means that every member has to not just be ready, but to be able, to help each other. Speeches, declarations, and statements won’t cut it: effort, action, hard work and tough decisions are needed to move Bosnia and Herzegovina from a NATO aspirant to a NATO ally. It’s that latter part – the effort, the action, the hard work and tough decisions – that is missing.
In 2010, NATO accepted a formal request from the BiH Presidency and invited Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the Membership Action Plan, or MAP. The only requirement was that Bosnia and Herzegovina first register as state-owned the properties necessary for future defense. This intentionally was a low bar that BiH officials actually offered to NATO as something they could quickly achieve. The 2005 BiH Law on Defense includes the legal requirement for authorities “to conduct required activities for the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO.” However, six years later, progress towards the “Tallinn Condition” as it’s now known is stalled: only 21 of 63 properties have been fully registered. Four other properties are mired in court battles, including Han Pijesak, the ownership of which is now under appeal in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another four are only partially registered, while for the remaining 34 properties, little progress has been made – and no properties have yet been registered in the Republika Srpska. The people of BiH have lost six valuable years of potential progress, and that’s a shame.
But there is hope: the United States, the United Kingdom, our partners, and NATO all want to see progress here. The Tallinn Condition hasn’t been met, but that doesn’t mean progress can’t be made elsewhere. Now is a particularly good time to showcase achievement, as NATO will hold its biennial summit in Warsaw on July 8 – 9. The key question is, how can Bosnia and Herzegovina show significant progress in just a few weeks? We think the answer is for Bosnia and Herzegovina to focus on its Defense Review.
The Defense Review is a technical document that defines the strategic environment, threats, challenges, risks, and capabilities a nation needs to ensure it meets its obligations to its citizens. It will define the force structure (size and capability), modernization plans and resources the BiH Armed Forces require to execute successfully the full range of missions within that strategy. In short, the Defense Review will ensure that BiH has the right sized forces going forward, with a fiscally sustainable defense and security sector.
To be clear, the Defence Review doesn’t replace the Tallinn Condition and it won’t activate MAP (which is just a step on the road to NATO, not NATO membership itself). But it is still important, and every country does something similar for its military: the U.S. has its Quadrennial Defense Review, and the UK has its Strategic Defence and Security Review. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Defense has been working on yours since 2009. Five of the Defense Review’s eight chapters are complete, but it’s the sixth chapter, the one that includes the size of the Armed Forces and its structure, that’s proving the hardest to finish. Reasonable people can and do disagree all the time on key issues like military size and structure, but Bosnia and Herzegovina has been debating these points since 2009. That’s too long, and we urge completion of the Defense Review as quickly as possible. What matters most isn’t numbers – it is a clear vision and framework for the Armed Forces.
We can’t emphasize it enough: the door to NATO remains open – wide open. The United States, the United Kingdom, our partners, and NATO all want to see progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In recent years, NATO has come to recognize your hard-won expertise in demining and force protection. We deeply value the contributions of your forces in Afghanistan. But political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina have to do their part, and must use this opportunity. Once again, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a chance to advance its interests, with the only obstacle being its own political decision-making. As we saw in response to the 2014 floods, your Armed Forces have developed into a reliable institution that can respond and work for all BiH citizens. As an institution, you should be proud that it has come a long way in a short time. More importantly, it is ready to take the next step. We urge you to help the Armed Forces – and BiH – take that step forward.
Authors: British Ambassador to BiH Edward Ferguson, U.S. Ambassador to BiH Maureen Cormack and Brigadier General Giselle M. Wilz, Commander and Senior Military Representative of the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo
