Samenvatting

This study was aimed at analyzing the international community’s efforts in relation to decreasing youth segregation in Bosnia with a focus on educational reforms. The central research question of this study is: “How can international educational initiatives contribute to a decrease of ethnic segregation among Bosnia’s youth?” Sixteen years ago, several international organizations started with proposing reforms for Bosnia’s segregated education system. The proposed reforms were aimed at reducing ethnic segregation and reforming the ethnic curriculums used in schools. News articles in 2017 depicted Bosnia’s education system as divided as it was before. To illustrate this, Bosnian students made the news for protesting against the establishment of another ethnically segregated school. This study showed that despite former failure, the international community appears to be the main initiator of educational reform aimed at decreasing ethnic segregation among youth. Nevertheless, ethnic segregation among Bosnia’s youth, in particular segregated education, still poses a problem to modern-day Bosnia. There appear to be various ways for the IC to initiate reforms more successfully. This study suggests three ways of improvement for the international community’s efforts in relation to decreasing segregation among youth in Bosnia. First, the incorporation of best practices from other post-conflict countries is recommended. Secondly, a cooperation between international organization and local actors is proposed. Last but not least, this study advocates the use of a bottom-up approach to initiate reforms and changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.