tion camps or killed. Srpskan forces also mounted a
forty-four-month siege of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo,
to force the Bosnian state to recognize the Republika
Srpska.
Role of the United States In June, 1992, the United
States backed a Security Council resolution to rede-
ploy a U.N. Protection Force from Croatia in order
to secure the Sarajevo airport and to facilitate civil-
ian relief by the Red Cross and other agencies. In
April, 1993, the mandate was extended to protect
various “safe havens”—that is, cities where all parties
were to refrain from military attacks and to establish
no-fly zones over Bosnia.
The United States then secured North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) approval to shoot
down four Serbian aircraft on February 28, 1994, vi-
olating the no-fly zone, yet Srpskan forces continued
to engage in ethnic cleansing. Accordingly, the Se-
curity Council approved the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a war
crimes court. Nevertheless, Srpskan forces defied
both the United Nations and the ICTY by slaughter-
ing eight thousand Bosniak males in Srebrenica dur-
ing July, 1995.
Peace Plans Several peace plans emerged during
the conflict. In January, 1993, U.N. special envoy
and former U.S. secretary of state Cyrus Vance and
European Community representative Lord David
Owen offered a peace agreement, but the Republika
Srpska rejected the plan on May 5. A plan by U.N.
mediators Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg of Au-
gust, 1993, was rejected by the Bosniak government.
Croats and Bosniaks even fought several skirmishes
over their respective division of the spoils under the
Vance-Owen plan from June, 1993, to February,
1994, when Washington succeeded in having them
agree to form an alliance against the Republika
Srpska. In 1994, the Republika Srpska turned down
a peace plan advanced by a Contact Group (France,
Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and the United
States).
In August, 1995, airplanes under NATO com-
mand started bombing Srpskan military positions in
concert with a Croatian military advance on the
ground. Contact Group pressure, including military
threats from the United States, then brought Ser-
bian president Slobodan Miloš evi 6 and others to a
peace conference at Dayton, Ohio, where the Gen-
eral Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina was signed on November 21 after in-
tense negotiations led by U.S. secretary of state War-
ren Christopher. The agreement was formally
adopted at Paris on December 14.Impact Although several persons have been tried
and convicted of war crimes in Bosnia by the ICTY,
the court failed to deter similar crimes in Kosovo, a
Yugoslav province, and in Rwanda. The Dayton
Agreement, which has worked well, later provided a
model for handling Kosovo.Further Reading
Burg, Steven L., and Paul S. Shoup.The War in
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and Interna-
tional Intervention. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe,- An award-winning scholarly work that ex-
amines the conflict and international efforts to
establish peace.
Hayden, Robert M. “Bosnia: The Contradictions of
‘Democracy’ Without Consent,” East European
Constitutional Review7 (Spring, 1998): 47-51. The
author argues that the peace agreement ratifies
ethnic cleansing and, in effect, provides for a
weak central government that is actually two sepa-
rate states.
Mousavizadeh, Nader, ed.The Black Book of Bosnia:
The Consequences of Appeasement. New York: Basic
Books, 1996. A detailed study of the causes of the
war, how the war was fought, and the aftermath;
identifies where the international community
failed to act in time to head off the tragedy.
Michael Haas
See also Christopher, Warren; Clinton, Bill; Day-
ton Accords; Europe and North America; Kosovo
conflict; United Nations. Bowl Championship Series
(BCS)
Definition An agreement between the four top
college football bowls pertaining mostly to the
rotation of hosting a national championship
gameThe agreement served as a notable attempt to determine a
national champion in college football’s top division in the
fairest manner without holding a playoff.114 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) The Nineties in America