Every November 25, Bosnia and Herzegovina marks Statehood Day – a date that should remind us all that the country’s story didn’t begin with the war or the political gridlock that defines so much of today’s headlines. In 1943, representatives from across Bosnia gathered and reaffirmed something extraordinary for that moment in European history: that Bosnia belonged to all of its peoples. The people of Bosnia chose antifascism, unity, and equality at a time when those values came at a real cost.

Eighty-two years later, and three decades after Dayton, the country is facing a very different kind of test. Statehood Day isn’t just a holiday anymore – it’s a reconning and a mirror. And what it reveals is a state struggling under a constitutional framework that has long outgrown its purpose, and a political reality that continues to divide those whom Bosnia’s leaders sought to unite in 1943.

Dayton – 30 Years On

Dayton accomplished what it set out to do: it stopped the shooting. But it also froze wartime divisions into arrangements that were never designed to carry the country into the future. A ceasefire is not a constitution, and a peace agreement drafted in a military base was never meant to serve as the long-term foundation for an entire society.

By locking in the wartime front lines, Dayton ensured that many survivors of genocide were left under the authority of the same political forces that had driven them out. Parties implicated in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide were not removed from power – they were formalized within the post-war system. A political order built on that foundation was bound to stall. No democratic society should tie its citizens’ rights or sense of belonging to ethnic categories shaped by war.

Bosnia has outgrown Dayton. The real question is whether those in power – inside the country and abroad – are willing to admit it and act accordingly.

What If Americans Had to Live Under Bosnia’s System?

One way to understand the absurdity of Bosnia’s political structure is to imagine it transplanted onto the United States.

Imagine telling Americans that:

the presidency must rotate based on ethnicity or religion every year,
certain citizens can never run for national office because of their religion or the color of their skin,
states must be defined around racial minorities or majorities,
laws can be blocked not because they’re flawed but because one group claims a “vital interest” objection,
and political success depends on fueling racial suspicion.

Most Americans wouldn’t tolerate such a system for a single election cycle – yet Bosnia is expected to accept it indefinitely.

Bosnia is just as diverse as the United States, perhaps even more intertwined historically. Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Roma, and others have lived together in Bosnia for centuries. Pluralism isn’t new or experimental there – it’s part of the country’s DNA.

So why isn’t a democratic, Western-leaning nation embraced as a natural partner and ally? Why is Bosnia nudged toward maintaining ethnic silos instead of encouraged to strengthen a civic, inclusive democracy?

A Path Forward – And the Need for Bipartisan Leadership

The future of Bosnia and Herzegovina – its democracy, security, and economic stability – depends on leadership that can break out of the old patterns. That’s true in Sarajevo, and it’s also true in Washington.

Bosnia faces a simple choice:

stay frozen in the structures of the 1990s, or
build a modern European democracy based on equal citizenship and rule of law.

The United States faces its own choice:

let the region drift toward instability by further entrenching tribalism, or
support a democratic, unified, NATO-aligned Bosnia that already shares many of America’s values.

The path forward is clear. Fighting fascism and supporting democracy are not Republican or Democratic values. They are American values.

Statehood Day Is Both a Celebration and a Caution

Statehood Day honors Bosnia’s antifascist foundations. But it also reminds us that fascism doesn’t always come roaring back with uniforms and flags. Sometimes it returns quietly:

through casual hate speech,
through rewritten history,
through systems that sort citizens into permanent categories,
through slow erosion of equality and belonging.

The leaders of 1943 rejected that path. So must we.

A Better Future Is Within Reach

Bosnia’s strength has always been its diversity. Its people have endured war, displacement, and political exhaustion – and still found reasons to hope. That resilience is worth building on.

The Bosnia of tomorrow cannot depend on Dayton or on fear. It must rest on equal citizenship, democratic institutions, and a shared belief that every person in the country deserves dignity.

A Bosnia where identity isn’t something you defend, but something you simply are.

A Bosnia where children aren’t separated in their schools based on ethnicity.

A Bosnia where fascist symbols have no place in public life.

A Bosnia where every citizen sees themselves reflected in the state.

That is the promise of Statehood Day – not only to remember what Bosnia once was, but to insist on what it can still become.

A country shaped not by fear, but by courage.