British Involvement in the Bosnian War: Strategic Culture and National Interests

摘要

This thesis examines the British involvement in the current Bosnian War byfocusing on two specific policy determinants, strategic culture and national interests. The thesis assigns working definitions to these two concepts and then applies them to the Balkan conflict to determine how each has motivated the British decision to intervene in the current crisis. The thesis also provides a concise survey of the historical British interests in the Balkans, in support of this study. The thesis concludes that each concept has exerted some influence on British decision making with respect to the Balkans. Indeed, strategic culture can wield considerable impact in the formation of British foreign policy. The narrowly defined concept of national interest that is employed in this work has also been a factor in British efforts in the current Balkan struggle, only to a lesser degree.