Strengths and Weaknesses of the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina

This article analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. First, it provides an overview of the mission through the changes in its mandates. Then, it outlines the mission’s performance with a view to present its achievements and failures. Third, it focuses on the problems the mission faced with regard to coherence and local ownership. The article argues that the mission shows the importance of coordination between different instruments of the EU and the degree to which the host society embraces reform initiatives. During the mission’s lifetime the problem regarding the coordination between the EU missions in the field was resolved; however, police reform could not be followed through due to the intransigence of local actors