The Maryland–Bosnia and Herzegovina National Guard Partnership is one of 25 European partnerships that make-up the U.S. European Command State Partnership Program and one of 88 worldwide partnerships that make-up the National Guard State Partnership Program. The partnership was established in 2003 and has become integral to Bosnia and Herzegovina's post-war military integration and in their ongoing NATO accession process. The current focus is on a joint-deployment to Afghanistan, AT exchanges with key BiH units, and supporting BiH's NATO Partnership for Peace goals.
History
The Bosnian War ended in 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Accord, which is still the constitutional document. The army integrated in 2006. Bosnia and Herzegovina was given a conditional NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2010. The country had not met the condition on defense property.
The Armed Forces are the most integrated, most effective national institution in Bosnia, but have been negatively affected by political tumult.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is unique in the European area of responsibility (AOR) in its internal political paralysis due to fundamental differences between its constituent "ethnicities" over what the country should look like. Though conflict is unlikely, in its current state, Bosnia is "virtually ungovernable" with no sign of agreement on reforms necessary to change that.
Partnership focus
In 2013, future focus for the partnership was established. These included to see through an embedded-deployment between Maryland National Guard (MDNG) Military Police and Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AFBiH) Military Police, including staff officers and PSD, to expand the Unit Level Exchanges occurring between AFBiH and MDNG during unit ATs to increase US-BiH interoperability, and to look to expand "whole-of-government" cooperation through actions like Relations/Security Studies student exchanges.
Planned events for 2013 were multiple TCTs based on Bosnian PARP goals, and an expanded slate of ULFs, with at least one occurring in Bosnia and Herzegovina. References
External links The EUCOM State Partnership page for Maryland-Bosnia Department of Defense News on the Maryland-Bosnia Partnership
National Guard Bureau SPP National Guard Bureau SPP News Archives