Country profile · Western Balkans
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Balkan country of about 3.1 million people (UN estimate). The Dayton Agreement that ended its 1992 to 1995 war still serves as its constitution. It divides the country into two parts, the Federation and the Serb-run Republika Srpska, under a three-member Presidency. Bosnia has been an EU candidate since 2022.
Where Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks
All rankings →Which alliances is Bosnia and Herzegovina in?
All alliances →Who runs Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a three-member Presidency. Voters in the Federation elect one Bosniak and one Croat member, and voters in Republika Srpska elect one Serb member, for four years. In the general election of October 4, 2026, Denis Bećirović of the Social Democratic Party kept the Bosniak seat with about 38% of the vote. Bećirović, a historian, was born in Tuzla in 1975. Darijana Filipović of the HDZ BiH won the Croat seat with about 47%. Željka Cvijanović of the SNSD kept the Serb seat with about 55.6%. Turnout was about 42%, the lowest ever. The results were still preliminary on October 21. The SDA won the most seats in the state parliament (chart). Borjana Krišto of the HDZ BiH has led the Council of Ministers since January 2023 and stays until a new government forms. The international High Representative, Christian Schmidt, left on July 1, 2026 after US pressure, and the American Louis Crishock is acting in his place.
- SDA 9
- SNSD 6
- SDP (Bećirović) 5
- HDZ BiH 4
- SBiH 3
- Others 15
Photo (November 2025): Elvis Barukcic, European Commission, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
Who are Bosnia and Herzegovina's allies and rivals?
Bosnia and Herzegovina became an EU candidate on December 15, 2022, and the EU agreed to open membership talks on March 21, 2024. The talks have not started, because the EU first wants a chief negotiator and new laws on the courts. If 50 reforms are not done by the end of 2026, Bosnia will lose €373.9 million of EU money. NATO offered Bosnia a membership plan in 2010, but Republika Srpska's leaders oppose joining. About 1,100 EU troops serve in the EUFOR Althea force under a UN mandate renewed every year. Serbia backs Republika Srpska. After the wartime general Ratko Mladić died on August 27, 2026, he was buried in Belgrade with military honors, and Bosnia expelled two Serbian diplomats on September 8. Vladimir Putin met Republika Srpska's leader Milorad Dodik four times in 2025 and 2026. The United States backs a gas pipeline from Croatia, and in April 2026 the Federation chose a US company to build it without a tender.
Allies and partners
CroatiaLargest buyer of exports; gas pipeline partner
GermanySecond-largest buyer; home to many emigrants
ItalyLargest supplier of imports
European UnionCandidate since 2022; talks not started
United StatesBrokered Dayton; backs pipeline from Croatia
- Banja Luka Seat of the government of Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of Bosnia.
- Brčko District shared by both parts of the country since 2000, after an international arbitration award.
- Neum Bosnia's only coast, about 20 km long. Croatia's Pelješac bridge has bypassed it since 2022.
- Zvornik All of Bosnia's gas enters here from Serbia. It is Russian gas arriving through the TurkStream pipeline.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Partner
- Tensions
Who does Bosnia and Herzegovina trade with?
Bosnia and Herzegovina exported $9.81 billion of goods in 2025 and imported $17.32 billion (Agency for Statistics). Croatia bought 18.1% of exports (chart), Germany 14.4% and Serbia 11.2%. The EU took 73.1% of exports. Italy supplied 11.8% of imports, Germany 11.4% and China 10.7%. Metal, electrical and wood products lead exports, and Bosnia sells electricity abroad. Coal made about 55% of its electricity in 2025. The convertible mark replaced the German mark one to one in 1998 and is now fixed at 1.95583 to the euro. Many people have left. There is no official count, but estimates say 400,000 to 500,000 people emigrated between 2013 and 2025, and deaths outnumber births by about 11,000 a year. The 2013 census counted 3.53 million people, and the UN now estimates 3.14 million. Workers abroad sent home about $3.49 billion in 2025, 10.7% of GDP (World Bank). In June 2026 the Financial Action Task Force put Bosnia on its grey list over money laundering.
Slovenia
Will Republika Srpska break away?
Milorad Dodik was born in Banja Luka on March 12, 1959 and has led the SNSD party since 1996. He was president of Republika Srpska from 2010 to 2018 and again from 2022. On February 26, 2025 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted him of defying the High Representative. It gave him one year in prison, later converted into a fine, and a six-year ban from office. The next day Republika Srpska's assembly passed laws banning the state court, prosecutors and police agency from working there. The election commission removed Dodik from office on August 6, 2025, and in October 2025 the assembly repealed the laws. On October 29, 2025 the United States lifted its sanctions on Dodik. His ally Siniša Karan narrowly won the early election to replace him. On October 4, 2026 the SNSD's Savo Minić won the presidency of Republika Srpska with about 52%. At his final campaign rally Dodik called Bosnia an "impossible country".
Why does Bosnia still run on the Dayton Agreement?
War broke out after the independence referendum of February 29 and March 1, 1992, which most Serbs boycotted. About 100,000 people were killed and about 2.2 million fled their homes. In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces under Ratko Mladić killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica. The UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2004 and the International Court of Justice in 2007 ruled that this was genocide. The peace deal was agreed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio on November 21, 1995 and signed in Paris on December 14. Its Annex 4 is still the constitution. It was written in English, and no Bosnian parliament ever adopted it. It created two parts, the Federation (about 51% of the land) and Republika Srpska (about 49%), and the Brčko District followed in 2000. Only Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs may run for the Presidency, even though the European Court of Human Rights ruled against this in 2009.