Connections, conundrums, and criminality: Understanding local perceptions about and attitudes toward organized crime and corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

摘要

Transnational organized crime and enabling corruption emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union as an important empirical fact, forcing many social scientists to address the issue in discussing transition politics and economies. A new literature and series of practices developed in the course of these discussions, attempting to properly account for the growth, endurance, and impact of organized crime and corruption in a quickly changing world. The dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, and in particular of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) provided a unique forum for measuring these tools, as organized crime and corruption emerged as key distracters in the development of a stable democracy and market economy in the region. However, international organizations dominate discussions and suggestions regarding organized crime and corruption in BiH, making it difficult to fully assess the problems in context. Additionally, the problems associated with these activities are not contained and, in some estimations, have increased since the international community began explicitly addressing the issues. Few locally produced studies or serious discussions about these problems are recognized or acknowledged in the current debate. This research aims to fill a gap in knowledge by bringing in the voice of local experts and measuring the differences between them and international perspectives and attitudes. The goal is to suggest more contextually relevant ways for addressing these issues by bridging these gaps and suggesting ways to produce a mutually agreeable approach for analyzing and dealing with organized crime and corruption---and possibly other issues that suffer from the same discord, inhibiting the state building project---in BiH, and beyond.