Peace as War is about the peace implementation process in Bosnia-Herzegovina viewed, or interpreted reasonably, as a continuation of war by other means. Twenty years after the beginning of the Dayton peace accords, we need to examine the results. The author shares the general consensus in public opinion that the process has been a failure.
Pehar presents a broad, yet sufficiently detailed, view of the entire peace agreement implementation that preserves 'the state of war,' and thus encourages the war-oriented attitudes in the parties to the agreement. He examines the political and narrative underpinnings to the process of the imposed international (predominantly USA) interpretation of the Dayton constitution and peace treaty as a whole. The key issue is the – perhaps only semi-consciously applied – divide and rule strategy. After nearly twenty years, the peace on paper has not been translated into a peace on the ground because, with regard to the key political and constitutional issues and attitudes, Bosnia remains a deeply divided society.
The book concludes that international supervision has served a perverse function: instead of correcting the aberration and protecting the the original intent of the Dayton peace treaty, the supervision approved the aberration and imposed it as a new norm under 'the power of ultimate interpretation.'