Over 130,000 people were killed in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, with most deaths concentrated in Bosnia. But 26 years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, nationalist tensions are re-emerging between Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Bosniak President Bakir Izetbegovic. So are we on the brink of another war in the Balkans - and did it ever end in the first place? Jelena Sofronijevic talks to journalist Una Hajdari and Professor James Ker-Lindsay about what we get wrong on ethnicity, peacekeeping, and Serbia’s “strongman” siblingship with Vladimir Putin. 

• “The ethnic differences that are taken into account by Bosnia's constitution are the same ones that will cause its downfall.” – Una Hajdari
• “Russia is playing a spoiling tactic in the Balkans.” - James Ker-Lindsay 
• “Dodik is clever enough to know an overt declaration of independence would fail. He'd need to rely on Serbia - but they'd avoid supporting him outright.” - James Ker-Lindsay
• “This is Bosnia's curse - all levels of its government have an ethnic quota, so it's hard to stray from any politics outside of that path.” - Una Hajdari
• “Both Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks see each other as a fundamental threat to each other's existence.” - James Ker-Lindsay

Written and presented by Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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