Who would have guessed that Bosnia and Lord Ashdown would be so well suited? For those who have forgotten, the former Lib Dem leader has been running Bosnia since 2002. A few weeks ago he scored an amazing success by forcing the Bosnian Serb leadership to accept an EU proposal on policing. This should mean that, in the next few years, the Bosnian Serb leadership will lose control of their police, the last real instrument of their power.
On 21 October Bosnia and Lord Ashdown duly collected their reward when the EU announced it was finally time to begin talks with the country on membership.
So Lord Ashdown has every reason to be happy. Now, just as he planned, he can retire to his country house (in Bosnia,) saying that exactly ten years after the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian war he has delivered the country "from Dayton to Brussels". Much of this is thanks to his bulldozer tactics, which among other things finally broke Bosnian Serb resistance and allowed the EU to make its decision.
All fine and dandy, but consider this: Lord Ashdown, born in New Delhi in 1941, of a family of soldiers and (nb) colonial administrators, wanted to run a country. He didn't get Britain but got Bosnia instead. Few doubt that he has done a good job, that he deserves congratulations, and that most Bosnians love him.
This last might seem odd. After all Bosnians elect their leaders just like we do but, because of the post-war settlement, Ashdown has remarkable powers to fire politicians and get things done. Polls have shown that Bosnians like this because they regard their own leaders as third rate and corrupt. But Bosnia's politicians like it even more because it means they never have to take hard decisions and can play "blame it on Paddy".
This is fine as far as it goes but worrying for the future. After all, lords ran their fiefs like this in the 15th century, but what is so alarming is that over the past few years it has become ever clearer that Bosnia has reverted to type, one with its origins in, well, the 15th century. In 1463 the Ottomans conquered Bosnia and from then to 1878 it was run by whomever the sultan sent out from Istanbul to be his Ashdown-pasha of the day.
In 1878 the Austro-Hungarians took over and sent their governors from Vienna, and from 1918 to 1992 Bosnia was part of Yugoslavia and so the buck stopped in Belgrade. In 2003 a Berlin-based think tank, the European Stability Initiative, riled Ashdown by pointing out that he was the latest in this long line of viceroys, acting for a "European Raj" with its imperial capital in Brussels.
Lord Ashdown has done a good job. The post-war era is over. The place is no longer threatened by its neighbours and is on course for Europe. But it would be good if Bosnians could wean themselves off the medieval way of running things and start to take some of the hard decisions themselves.
