Association Bosnia and Herzegovina 2005 (2003-2005): The Association Bosnia and Herzegovina 2005 had been established on 17 September 2003 (see the 2003 Appeal below) to facilitate policy research in preparation of a high-profile international conference on Bosnia and Herzegovina held in Geneva on 20-21 October 2005. Members of the Senior Advisory Board were: Wolfgang Petritsch (chair), Sonja Biserko, Lakhdar Brahimi, Erhard Busek, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Jovan Divjak, Marrack Goulding, Sonja Licht, Bozidar Matic, Predrag Matvejevic, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, José Maria Mendiluce, Vreni Müller-Hemmi, Manfred Nowak, James C. O’Brien, Jasmina Pasalic, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Ramesh Thakur. President: Jakob Finci; Executive Director: Christophe Solioz. The Association gathered some 100 established figures as well as emerging voices in an internally-driven process that was closely focused on promoting ownership-oriented strategies during a period that will prove critical for the country’s future development and its very existence as a viable state. The Association was aimed to stimulate a debate based on facts, not partisanship. By facilitating informed debate rather than advocating specific solutions, it intended to act as a catalyst for effective, policy-relevant ideas to emerge and gain influence at a time when the country was - and still is - in urgent need of a vision to achieve full, sovereign statehood. Access the conference's programm and press coverage as well as the Vienna follow-up seminar and the publication of the culture task force :

With the successful organization of the conference (which was attended by over 400 analysts, academics, policy-makers, diplomats, and journalists), the follow-up seminar "Austrian Presidency of the EU - Regional Approaches to the Balkans" co-organised with the Center for the Study of Global Governance in Vienna on 18 November 2005, the publication of the culture task force "On the trace of new politics: Culture and education in Bosnia and Herzegovina" (2006), and the launch - end 2005 - in Sarajevo of the Center for European Integration Strategies (CEIS), the Association fulfilled its aims and was dissolved in December 2005. Access the conference report and the main workshops' reports:

During the preparatory phase of the conference, numerous workshops and seminars were organised in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Trebinje and Mostar, but also in New York and Vienna. The key event was the seminar "Perspectives on the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina" organised in Sarajevo (5-6 May 2004) that paved the way to a collective book as well as to the establishment of various task forces. During that period, some 36 open editorials and articles were published in the press. The key documents and publication are available here: