Bosnia: a new model of army
Armed Forces of Bosnia-Herzegovina (OSBIH / ОСБИХ; Oružane snage BIH / Оружане снаге БИХ) is the official military force of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bosnian Armed forces were founded in 2005 and are composed of two founding armies: Bosniak-Croat, Army of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb, Army of Republika Srpska. The Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, founded in 2004, is in charge of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On 14 December 2006, Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with Montenegro and Serbia, join the NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme.
For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the ceremony had special significance. The Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the conflict in that country, were signed in Paris exactly eleven years ago.
“The fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina is joined the Partnership for Peace Programme is probably one of the biggest steps that Bosnia and Herzegovina has undertaken in its past with Euro-Atlantic integration,” said Mr. Nebojša Radmanović the Chairman of the Tripresidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We are quite aware that this is the first step and that it means that we have to take more effort towards going to Euro-Atlantic integration, and we want to do so.”
Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the PfP SOFA Agreement with NATO in 2007 in order to ensure its participation in PfP activities at full capacity, and to be able to host NATO/PfP events.
Participation in activities included in the IPP highly contributes to the development of the defense system and the continuation and completion of defense reform, with the final aim of creating Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina that will be small, well equipped, mobile forces of well trained and motivated soldiers under the leadership of highly qualified officers and NCOs, supported by expert and qualified civilian personnel. Bosnia and Herzegovina is determined to further develop a fully professional active component of armed forces, complemented by fully trained active reserve, both manned by volunteers who meet high professional standards. These forces, including reserves, will be internally compatible and interoperable with NATO forces. Process of restructuring and reorganization of the Armed Forces in order to reach these goals is ongoing. The NATO/PfP Trust Fund which effectively started in second half of 2007, funded with more than 5,000,000.00 Euros, for assistance to redundant defense personnel is an important element of that process.
Bosnia will be the country host of a grand military exercise “Joint Effort 2009”, which will assembly NATO member countries from the Partnership for Peace Program (PFP), as well as other countries. The exercise is a tribute to the efforts Bosnia has made in the implementation of the defense reform.
On October 24, 2008 the Coordination team of the Bosnian Council of Ministers for NATO integrations adopted yesterday on the Action plan for realization of Bosnia's activities for obtaining NATO membership until April 2009 that is till the next summit of the Alliance. Igor Crnadak, the Bosnian Deputy Minister of Defense was presiding at the meeting.
As it was announced from the Bosnian Ministry of Defense the most important activities in this period will be realization of the taken obligations, especially from the IPAP and the intensified dialogue.
Another obligations are also fulfillment of the Bosnian Mission to NATO, Department for NATO and PFP at the Bosnian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as development and the beginning of the realization of the strategy of communication for better introduction of the Euro-Atlantic integrations to the Bosnian citizens.
NATO Coordination team concluded that it is necessary to speed up the fulfillment of the Bosnian Mission to NATO since delay would lead to practical difficulties due to the fact that they could not participate in everyday work of the Alliance and poorer presence of Bosnia in Brussels.
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Bosnia's armed forces are now seen as genuine security providers - and far from a security threat. How did this happen?
Ensuring Bosnia's armed forces were overhauled was an urgent need after the country's conflict. Despite several obstacles, it succeeded beyond expectations. Here, some who were at the heart of the change explain why it went so well.