The conference “30 Years of Dayton: Myths, Realities, and New Visions for the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina” concluded

RELIABLE INSTITUTIONS, CREDIBLE INFORMATION, AND POSITIVE SOCIAL VALUES AND CONDITIONS FOR PEACEBUILDING

Over 50 professors from around the world participated in the conference.

On the final day of the conference “30 Years of Dayton: Myths, Realities, and New Visions for the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” a panel titled “Building Peace Across Generations: Mapping Perspectives on Peace Systems and Reforms” was held. Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs published a new Policy Brief titled “Everyday Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” (2025), developed through collaboration between Yale’s Peacebuilding Initiative and the Institute for Development Impact (I4DI). The document explores how citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina perceive and maintain peace in their daily lives and proposes a series of practical measures to strengthen social cohesion and institutional trust.

"Our goal was not to invent solutions that can be imposed from outside or from above. Instead, our aim was to shed light on ways in which Bosnians can start building a healthier civic sphere for themselves. Focus group discussions focused on some of the obstacles to everyday peace, such as dysfunctions faced in political, legal, media, and economic areas. At the same time, they helped articulate small steps that could help break this cycle, such as improving transparency in institutional work and investing in what we might call civic literacy training," explained David Simon, co-founder of the Institute for Peacebuilding at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.

The Policy Brief emphasizes the importance of enhancing institutional literacy, establishing clearer standards of service, improving public communication and professional media practices, expanding transparent opportunities for youth, and strengthening ethical norms in education and public service. Additionally, the document highlights the significance of concrete initiatives that improve cooperation among communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research process notably involved collaboration with the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo, whose support was crucial in enabling and facilitating fieldwork. The authors of the Policy Brief expressed gratitude to Prof. Dr. Zinka Gbro, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo, for her key support in partner coordination and significant contribution to guiding the research process.

“This project examines how different generations understand everyday peace. The focus group exercises conducted last summer provided a systematic way to listen to people in their own words. Through mapping exercises, participants articulated the paths they consider most important for improving the world around them,” said Catherine Panter-Brick, lead researcher and co-founder of the Institute for Peacebuilding at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs.

“The systems behind the perception of everyday peace in each individual are equally complex as they are fundamentally important for how people live their lives. I believe our participatory research this summer was another step in understanding these systems and bringing us closer to building a sustainable and prosperous sense of everyday peace for people across Bosnia and Herzegovina—an effort designed and led by the lived experiences of those very people,” emphasized Mak Nurkić, a scholar of the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs Peacebuilding Initiative.

The main focus of the research is on the thoughts and perspectives of young people in various regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, their views on maintaining peace and coexistence, and how they see the future of our country.