What Independence Means in Sarajevo

Posted: July 7th, 2016

By Samantha Vinograd

Samantha Vinograd began her career as the Deputy U.S. Treasury Attaché to Iraq and later held several positions in the Obama Administration, including Senior Advisor to National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon. She transitioned to the private sector in 2013 where she has worked on global energy and sustainability issues. She is a David E. Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Marking the birthday of American independence away from home is always a unique experience. I have celebrated the fourth of July in war zones and Western Europe, and this year I find myself watching fireworks and explaining “barbequing” to my hosts in Sarajevo. Examining the trajectory of democracy has particular relevance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ravaged by a brutal war that is still at the forefront of every discussion here. We must head into the NATO Summit this week aware of the risks of disunity and separatism and the benefits of building a strong, integrated alliance. Bosnia’s history and current state of affairs underscore these points.

Before arriving in Sarajevo, my knowledge of Bosnia and Herzegovinia was limited to college courses on the 1992 – 1995 conflict and unsettling and dimming memories of TV broadcasts of concentration camps and the Srebrenica massacre. Post Dayton Peace Accords, the Balkans had not held a primary position in my education or my professional pursuits. Arriving in Sarajevo as part of an Atlantic Council delegation, I had no idea what to expect, visually or substantively.

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