While such sociopolitical complexities are often a reality and a challenge in BiH, this particular period came on the heels of very significant political developments that followed the October 2022 elections – beginning with the decision of the High Representative (HR) to impose amendments to the country’s electoral law and Constitution on the night of the election itself, which much of the public. [...] The political scene was thus further complicated when the HR intervened again towards the end of our research period, and temporarily suspended the Constitution of the FBiH to enable the formation of the entity’s government without the consent of the Bosniak vice president (a member of the SDA), deepening political polarization within the FBiH. [...] and Russia was forced to retaliate.”3 And, in direct opposition to the EU – which suspended Kremlin-backed out- lets like RT and Sputnik in the wake of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, largely to limit the flow of disinformation – Dodik’s RS apparently has plans to introduce the Serbian-language RT Balkan outlet to the Bosnian market in 2024.4 The evolution of Dodik’s positions and decision mak- in. [...] In the FBiH, respondents expressed the most support for accession in the cantons of Posavina (100%), Podrinje (100%), Sarajevo (95.9%), and Tuzla (94%), and while support for accession was lower in the cantons of Una-Sa- na (81.7%), Hercegovina (80.3%), and West Herzegovina (64.5%), these rates were consider- ably higher than support in any part of the RS, or in the Brčko District (57.9%). [...] And notably, this disparity in perceptions of the “reali- ty… and feeling” of security occurs not only at the individual level but also at the national level.13 The question, particularly in the context of discrepancies between the reality and feeling of security among national policymakers, as Stoetman has noted, is “how the mismatch between these realities and perceptions of security can be expl.
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- Bosnia and Herzegovina