Republika Srpska and its Boundaries in Bosnian Serb Geographical Narratives in the Post‐Dayton Period

Territory has been a key physical and symbolic resource in post‐socialist national mobilisation as well‐defined nations have sought to confirm or create nation‐states and their boundaries. This paper analyses geographical narratives accompanying the Bosnian Serb attempt to impose and retain control over territory in Bosnia–Herzegovina. Bosnian Serb failure to create a sovereign nation‐state was followed by a portrayal of the Dayton‐based entity of the Republika Srpska as a state in Bosnian Serb geographical narratives and of its administrative boundary as a symbolic national border. The paper reaffirms the continued relevance of the spatial analysis of the 1995 territorial arrangement of Bosnia–Herzegovina, instituted by the Dayton Peace Agreement. It explores the role of spatial narratives in the symbolic construction of nationhood, while emphasising the relevance of actual and lived expressions of the nation's territory and its boundaries.