Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia (Paperback) | Released: 03 Mar 2015

The incredibly complex drama of war and edgy peace that unfolded inBosnia, or Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the 1990s gave birth to a fascinatingand instructive series of military operations that constitute the subject ofthis study. The nature of circumstances and missions in Bosnia poses avariety of challenges to the historian. First, given their recent occurrence, itis remarkably difficult to frame these events in historical perspective. Thisis in part because many outcomes and consequences reside somewherein the future. The SFOR mission itself only came to a close late in 2004as this work was going to press. Equally significant is the fact that vastquantities of relevant documents remain classified. As a result, the chaptersthat follow necessarily form a preliminary attempt to capture the mostimportant dynamics of the history yet unfolding in this unfortunate country.An additional hurdle is the chaos that attended the Bosnian Civil Warand the nonlinear character of modern post-conflict operations, whetherthey emphasize peacemaking, peacekeeping or peace enforcement. Incontrast to the story of most wars, peace operations in Bosnia did notunfold in a progression of events that yield a seamless narrative. Rather, the course of history in Bosnia was, and remains, a fitful affair. As thefinal chapter observes, success in peace operations is hard to measure andself-deception is a constant hazard. One critical aspect of this conditionwas the ceaseless rotation of U.S. and other units through Bosnia. In somerespects, the mission began again with the arrival of each new commander, division, brigade, and battalion.History is most often told from the perspective of commanders, especially in official histories. More recently, interest has grown concerningthe viewpoint of individual soldiers. If anything, this work emphasizes themiddle ground, the vantage point of field grade officers. This is in part afunction of happenstance, since majors and lieutenant colonels constitutea highly accessible population at the US Army Command and GeneralStaff College. Nevertheless, it is the authors' perception that these aremost often the individuals best situated to comprehend simultaneously theview from above and below, in other words the whole picture. Regrettably, very senior officers frequently reside within a cocoon of obsequiousnesscreated by military culture and well-meaning staff officers. Thus, all butthe most discerning perceive developments through the filtering lenses ofoperations plans, briefing slides, and third-hand reporting. Conversely, ordinary soldiers, with some notable exceptions, frequently have no graspof the strategic or operational context in which they carry out their duties.To be sure, no single perspective of modern operations is sufficient by itself.Indeed, if oral history interviews, upon which this study extensively relies, prove anything, it is that every participant has a distinctive experience.Historical truth, then, is at best a thoughtful approxim