Yale Jackson School faculty traveled to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to present new research on “Everyday Peace” – a policy brief examining how institutional trust, information integrity, and civic tone shape peace in daily life.

The brief emerged from field research conducted over the summer through a collaboration between the Jackson School’s Peacebuilding Initiative and the Institute for Development Indicators (I4DI), with crucial cooperation from the University of Sarajevo’s faculties of law and political science.

The brief notes three main factors identified through structured focus group discussions on the topic of what citizens named as the drivers of “Everyday Peace.” It proposes that, for respondents in both Sarajevo and East Sarajevo (Pale), institutional reliability, information integrity, and positive civic tone are key to how peace works in everyday life. Each factor is often perceived as a scarce commodity, but crucially, each is absolutely needed to reinforce the others for sustained peace.

Sarajevo itself remains a powerful context for this work. After Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, the country endured conflict among Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats. More than 100,000 lives were lost, and Sarajevo suffered a 1,425-day siege by Serb forces — the longest siege of a capital in modern history.

Catherine Panter-Brick, the Bruce A. and Davi-Ellen Chabner Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs, and David Simon, Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs and Assistant Dean for Graduate Education, presented the brief during a November 22 panel at the University of Sarajevo’s conference “30 Years after Dayton: Myths, Realities, and New Visions for the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

They then led a 90-minute standalone workshop on November 24 with three coauthors: first author Mak Nurkić (joining via Zoom) and Sarajevo-based researchers Srdjan Vujovic and Dženana Šabić Hamidović.

Along with Emir Nurkic Kacapor, COO of the I4DI and co-founder of the Maryland–Bosnia and Herzegovina Exchange Council, Panter-Brick and Simon also had the opportunity to discuss the project’s findings with H.E. Željko Komšić, Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hon. Samir Avdić, the Mayor of Sarajevo. They also discussed further extensions of the project with the University of Sarajevo and with several of the “30 years after Dayton” conference participants. Later, at the Statehood Day celebration at Sarajevo’s City Hall, the Jackson professors met briefly with H.E. Denis Bečirović, Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The brief, “Everyday Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina” can be accessed on the Peacebuilding Initiative’s research page.