Title: Economic agendas, strategy and proactive planning in post-conflict reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Authors: Tigran Haas

Addresses: Department of Infrastructure, Royal Institute of Technology – KTH, Division of Urban Studies, DKV 30, Plan1, Stockholm 10044, Sweden

Abstract: This paper looks at the post-conflict economic reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It takes a stance that the international assistance in reconstruction planning needs to focus on the overall systems framework, where all the segments play a crucial and equal role and where all the issues are regarded as dynamic and treated as interconnected. A significant progress has been achieved in understanding the social, political and economic factors underlying the civil and ethnic wars but the complexity of these factors in post-war situations and their inter-dependency has been comparatively neglected. This paper draws attention to the importance of innovation, knowledge creation and proactive strategies for achieving a competitive post-conflict society. What seems to emerge from the analysis is that achieving a real-time reconstruction is very difficult without a holistic approach to planning and systemic thinking. This paper, also considers the importance of the regional context and competitive (dis)advantages of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Keywords: economic reconstruction agendas; regional integration; foreign direct investment; FDI; innovation; competitive advantage; complexity; uncertainty; proactive planning; strategic management; Bosnia and Herzegovina; civil war; reconstruction planning; post-war situations; innovation; knowledge creation; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2006.010547

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2006 Vol.3 No.5, pp.621 - 639

Published online: 30 Jul 2006 *

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