NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS/RESEARCHERS (the order of authors follows the sequence of book chapters)

Roberto Belloni is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. Previously he held teaching and research positions at the University of Denver, Harvard, Queens Belfast, Johns Hopkins (Bologna Center), and Trento. His research focuses on international intervention in conflict areas, with particular focus on the Balkans and on civil society issues. His recent publications include: I Balcani dopo le guerre (Carocci, 2022); The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans (Palgrave, 2020); Stabilization as the New Normal in International Interventions: Low Expectations? (Routledge, 2020, co-edited with Francesco Moro); Fear and Uncertainty in Europe: The Return to Realism? (Palgrave, 2019, co-edited with Vincent Della Sala and Paul R. Viotti).

Aleksandra Zdeb is an Assistant Professor at the University of the National Education Commission in Krakow. She holds a Ph.D. in law and politics from the University of Graz and spent two years as a post-doc at the Queen’s University Belfast where she worked on topics of excluded groups and third sector influence on good governance in post-conflict societies. She published papers devoted to post-conflict reconstruction and state-building processes in journals like Ethnopolitics, Nationalities Papers, New Eastern Europe, Representation, and Swiss Political Science Review.

Tajma Kapić holds a PhD, from Dublin City University, School of Law and Government. Her doctoral research investigated the impact of consociational peace agreements on women’s descriptive representation in national and sub-national political institutions in divided societies. It focuses on the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina to determine the gendered outcomes of peace processes and processes of post-conflict reconstruction, the effects of power-sharing agreements in resolving ethno-national conflicts, and their effect on women’s rights. Her post-doctoral engagement was conducted at The Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction https://iicrr.ie/, Dublin City University, and was part of the multi-institutional ARINS research project (Analyzing & Researching Ireland, North and South) https://www.ria.ie/arins. The ARINS project is based in the RIA (Royal Irish Academy) Dublin and includes academics from a wide range of universities in Ireland and the UK. Its aim is to provide an authoritative, independent, and non-partisan reference point for research and analysis about future constitutional, institutional, and policy options for the island of Ireland.

Hikmet Karčić is a Research Associate at the Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo. He is author of “Torture, Humiliate, Kill: Inside the Bosnian Serb Camp System” (University of Michigan Press, 2022). He was the 2017 Auschwitz Institute-Keene State College Global Fellow who has written extensively on genocide denial and atrocity prevention. A sought after commentator on international media outlets, his articles covering far-right extremism and mass atrocities have appeared in Haaretz, Newsweek and Foreign Policy.

Mustafa Dedović is a Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, specializing in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the 19th and 20th centuries. His doctoral research focuses on the military history of BiH during the 1992-1995 war, with a particular emphasis on military efforts to deblock besieged Sarajevo. He is also the author of several articles related to the modern history of BiH.

Dr. Ena Kazić-Çakar is Dean of the Faculty of Law of the International University of Sarajevo and Associate Professor in the scientific area of Criminal Law. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo. Dr.sci. Kazić-Çakar received two Gold Medals as being the best student in her cohort during her BA and MA studies at the same University. She authored many scientific publications, such are scientific articles in reputable law journals, books “Application of Educational Recommendations as a form of Restorative Justice in the Canton Sarajevo, for the period 2012-2017“, and „Sexual Violence in the Contemporary Criminal Law “. She is the Editor in Chief of the IUS Law Journal, a member of the Research Committee of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, an educator for the Center for the Education of Judges and Prosecutors of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a reviewer for several renewed international law journals. Her research currently addresses various topics from the criminal law field such are sexual violence prevention, corruption prevention, transitional and restorative justice.

Damir Kapidžić is an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Sarajevo in BiH. He is currently Weatherhead Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. His research looks at ethnic conflict, political parties, and power-sharing. He is particularly interested in formal and informal processes and institutional arrangements through which democratic or authoritarian politics are legitimized. Much of his research looks at countries in Southeast Europe, a.k.a. the Balkans, but also includes comparative perspectives from East Africa and Southeast Asia, applying qualitative and mixed methods approaches. He is co-editor of “Illiberal Politics in Southeast Europe: How Ruling Elites Undermine Democracy” (Routledge, 2022).

Jasmin Hasanović is an Assistant Professor at the Department for Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His research spans a variety of interconnected fields, including social and political movements, socialism, (post)Yugoslav studies, geopolitics, and cyberpolitics. Hasanović is also deeply engaged with critical political theory, focusing on contemporary debates about democracy and the interplay between activism and the concept of emancipation in modern political thought.

Maja Sahadžić is an Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the School of Law and Researcher at Montaigne Center for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice (Utrecht University), Visiting Professor (University of Antwerp), Senior Research Fellow (Law Institute in BiH), and Affiliated Scholar (Center for Comparative and Transnational Law at CUHK). Maja is also Co-chair of the Committee on New Directions in Scholarship of the ICON S. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Toronto, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, The University of Hong Kong, MGIMO University, and Victoria University of Wellington. Her research revolves around multilevel governance, dynamic legitimacy, dynamic stability, asymmetries, alternative conflict solutions, constitutionalism under extreme measures, authoritarianism, and antidemocratic risks caused by technology. Her book “Asymmetry, Multinationalism and Constitutional Law, Managing Legitimacy and Stability in Federalist States” (Routledge) was nominated for the 2020 Book of the Year in Constitutionalism and announced among the 2020 Books of the Year on Federalism by the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism. In 2018 she received the Ronald Watts Award for the best article on using the concept of constitutional asymmetries to contribute to the Middle East Peace process.

Lejla Balić is an Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo. Her scientific research interests are in the fields of federalism, democratization, parliamentary and electoral law, and European public law. In particular, she researched the topics of European citizenship and the role of democratic principles in the legal system of the European Union and is the author of the monograph “European Union: Parliament and Democratization” published in 2020. She participated in numerous academic projects, the last one being “Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitution and EU Accession. An Academic Platform for Discussing the Options” (Knowledge Exchange Program), where she was a member of the Coordination board.

Haris Gekić graduated in 2007, finished his master’s thesis in 2011 and doctoral dissertation in 2016 in the field of Human Geography. He has been working at the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo, since 2007, currently as Associate Professor of Human Geography. He is the chief of Cathedra for Human Geography at the Department of Geography. He is deputy chief editor of Geografski Pregled, the oldest geography scientific journal in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His research interests include population geography, urban geography, rural geography, and political geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the chief organizers of the Congress of Geographers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is the author of six books, including co-authorship of “The Geography of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between East and West” (Springer, 2022), and more than 50 papers. He is a member of the Geographical Society of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He participated in six COST EU projects.

Nidžara Ahmetašević is a journalist, editor and researcher from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has been working in the media for over 20 years and holds a PhD from the University of Graz, Austria.  She has received the AHDA Columbia University Fellowship, Chevening Scholarship, Ron Brown Fellowship for Young Professionals, UNICEF Keizo Obuchi Award, and Annenberg-Oxford Summer Media Policy Summer Institute Fellowship; she was short-listed for the European Press Prize in 2022; and Fetisov Journalism Award 2022 for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Peace’. Her work has been featured in various media in the Balkans, as well as the New Yorker, Al Jazeera English online, The Observer, the Independent on Sunday, the International Justice Tribune, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone, among others. She is author of “The Media as a Tool of International Intervention: House of Cards” (Routledge, 2024).

Gorana Mlinarević is a feminist activist and researcher on human rights and women, peace and security, particularly addressing issues related to wartime sexual violence and recognition of women’s war and post-war experiences and gender justice, as well as women’s engagements with and women’s movements in post-war and neoliberal contexts. Her interdisciplinary research often explores intersections and tensions between identity politics and economic and social realities of the post-war societies and societies in so called transitions (or more exactly societies undergoing political, social and economic transformations). In this regard she published widely on feminist critique of international criminal law and prosecutions of international crimes, feminist critique of peace agreements and its implementation, including Dayton Peace Agreement. In addition, for significant period of time, she has also been involved in addressing human rights violations in connection with migration.

Sead Turčalo is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sarajevo, where he received his Ph.D. in Security Studies. He researches state-building and international security issues. He attended the Leadership Academy for Development, organized by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, as well as programs at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Transparency International, the Center for Electoral Studies, and UG Zašto ne, led by Prof. Dr. Francis Fukuyama. Furthermore, he completed the Diploma in Islamic Sciences program at the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. Turčalo has provided consultancy and expertise for numerous domestic and international organizations such as OSCE, IOM (International Organization for Migration), IRI (International Republican Institute), and the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, among others. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague (Netherlands) and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania). As a coordinator of several international projects, he possesses significant experience in project management and works closely with representatives of political studies in the region. He has published several books, numerous articles in national and international journals.

Faris Kočan is Assistant Professor at Chair of International Relations, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences. Currently, he is the principal investigator of the University of Ljubljana team in the Horizon Europe project RECLAIM – Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in Europe in the Postfactual Age. He has published, among others, in Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Nationalities Papers, Journal of International Relations and Development, Peacebuilding, Ethnopolitics and Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. He also co-authored “European Narratives and Euroscepticism in the Western Balkans and the EU” (Routledge, 2024). His primary research focus is on the securitization of identities in the context of European integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ana Bojinović Fenko is Professor and Researcher in International Relations at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences. Her fields of research are Foreign Policy Analysis, International Regionalism and EU external action. Empirically, she focuses on post-Yugoslav small states, EU enlargement policy towards Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region. Her recent publications on the topic include: an article »Europeans from the Start? Slovenia and Croatia Between State-building, National Identity and the European Union« in 2023 with S. Keil and Z. Šabič in Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, a chapter  »Central and Eastern European countries’ foreign policy responses to the rise of illiberalism in international politics« in 2023 with F. Kočan (in edited volume The neoliberal world order in crisis, and beyond: an East European perspective) and an article »Re-examination of EU normative power in light of the revised enlargement methodology towards the Western Balkans« in 2022 with F. Kočan in International problems.

Jure Požgan is an Assistant Professor and Researcher in International Relations at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences. His research focus is the European Integration process, in particular EU Enlargement policy towards Western Balkans, EU external action and International Cooperation. His recent publications include: two chapters in 2022 »European Union enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans« with A. Bojinović Fenko and F. Kočan and »From a star pupil to a troubling role model for the Western Balkans: the influence of domestic factors on the de-Europeanization of Slovenia during EU crises« with A. Bojinović Fenko (in an edited volume Challenges and barriers to the European Union expansion to the Balkan region), and a chapter in 2024 »Protection of the global climate in EU–Russia relations: an assessment of norm strength and logic of action« with D. Crnčec and A. Bojinović Fenko (in an edited volume Making the European Green Deal work: EU sustainability policies at home and abroad).

Dr. Mirza Ljubović is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the International University of Sarajevo. He earned his Ph.D. in 2023 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Mostar, specializing in international law, after which he was appointed to the academic title of Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, International University of Sarajevo. From 2017 to 2022, he served as the Faculty Secretary, and until 2023, he was also a Senior Teaching Assistant at the same institution. His additional education spans the fields of Comparative Constitutional and European Law, Migration Management, Diplomacy and Cooperation, Internationalization, and Sustainable Development. He has participated in numerous conferences and seminars, moderating public lectures, panels, and roundtable discussions. He is fluent in English language and has been teaching in English language at the university level. He has published numerous professional and academic papers in recognized and relevant academic databases.

Jahja Muhasilovć is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) at the International University of Sarajevo (IUS). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2020 at the Bogazici University by defending the thesis named “Turkish Public Diplomacy and Soft Power in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sandzak Region (2002-2017)”, which was published as a book the same year by the Union of Turkish World Municipalities. He also has other co-authored books and journal articles published in English and Turkish. His areas of expertise are geopolitics, the politics of the Balkans, and Turkish foreign policy.

Nedžma Džananović is a Professor and researcher at the University of Sarajevo’s Faculty of Political Science. A former Bosnian diplomat and a foreign policy advisor to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH (2004–2007), she is the author of two books and a number of articles in the fields of contemporary diplomacy, European integration, as well as more traditional disciplines of political science. Within her research foci, she has led and contributed to several international, bilateral, and local research projects. She also serves as mentor for a club that gathers advanced students of international relations called the Corps Diplomatique Club.

Agata Domachowska is an Associate professor (dr. hab.) at the Faculty of Humanities (Nicolaus Copernicus University, NCU) and a senior analyst at the Institute of Central Europe (Department of the Balkans). She’s a recipient of numerous scholarships and grants including a Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the 2015 ASEEES Davis Travel Grant, Polish Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture in Croatia. Dr. Domachowska conducted research projects at the University of Pittsburgh, George Washington University and the Humboldt University of Berlin, as well as in archives and libraries in several Western Balkan states. She also did an internship at the European Parliament and a training stay at the Polish Embassy in Tirana. Currently, Dr. Domachowska serves as the Head of the Laboratory for the Study of Collective Memory in Post-Communist Europe and a member of the Polish Commission of Balkan Culture and History. Her research focuses on identity and historical narratives, nation-building and the politics of memory in the Western Balkans, Balkan diasporas, politics and culture of Western Balkan states. She is co-editor of “States, International Organizations and Strategic Partnerships” (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).

Kenan Hodžić is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Security Studies at the University of Sarajevo. His career spans roles as a researcher, analyst, and consultant, focusing on national security, Euro-Atlantic relations, energy security, crisis management, and critical infrastructure. He is engaged with several international centers for security studies and has previously participated in numerous international and domestic conferences, seminars, round tables, workshops, and panel discussions. His scientific work has been published in national and international journals in the field of security.

Jasmin Ahić is a Professor and the Dean at the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Security Studies at the University of Sarajevo. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sarajevo in 1998 and attended postgraduate studies in “South Eastern European Studies” at the Faculty of Political Science of the National University of Athens, Greece. He defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Private Security Agency in the Institutional Reform of the Security System of Bosnia and Herzegovina” in 2008 at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo, thus earning the title of Doctor of Political Science. Since 2001, he has been employed at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security as a professor in the scientific field of Security Studies. He was appointed as a professor in 2013 and attained full professorship in 2019. He has organized and participated in numerous conferences and round tables both abroad and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Additionally, he has led and collaborated on various international and domestic projects related to security, terrorism, and private security. He has also served as an expert engaged through the work of several international organizations and centers.

Chiara Milan is an Assistant Professor in political sociology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy. She served as project coordinator of the Jean Monnet Network “Transnational Political Contention in Europe” (TraPoCo) between 2021 and 2024. She has been Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Southeast European Studies of the University of Graz, Austria, and holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute. She is author of “Social Mobilization Beyond Ethnicity: Civic Activism and Grassroots Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina” (Routledge, 2020). Her research focuses on social movements and contentious politics, nationalism, ethnicity, citizenship and migration, with a specific focus on Southeastern Europe.

Aida Kapetanović is a PhD candidate in Political Science and Sociology at Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy, and a member of COSMOS, the Centre on Social Movement Studies. Her doctoral research investigates the recent environmental struggles in defense of the rivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Previously, she completed a Master’s degree in East European and Eurasian studies (MIREES) in Forlì, focusing on identity policies and nationalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her research interests include social movements, environmental activism, cultural and symbolic dimensions of mobilization, nationalism and identity building in Southeastern European contexts.