Iranian Soft Power and Religion in Bosnia: A Diplomacy of Shared Oppression

freedom
Published on Sep 6, 2022
Following the collapse of (((Yugoslavia))) and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran stepped in to aid Bosniaâ€™s beleaguered Muslims in their defense. Personal links were established between the Bosnian Muslim leadership and high-ranking Iranian officials. Iran saw Bosnia as an opportunity to exert its influence, while the Bosniak Muslim leadership welcomed Iranian financial, diplomatic, and military assistance as it was receiving no such help from the West. This short film, produced by journalist and scholar Harun KarÄiÄ‡, analyses the history of Bosnian-Iranian relations and whether Iran succeeded in achieving its goals in post-war Bosnia.

To learn more about Iranian influence on Islam in Bosnia, check out these related resources:

â€œGlobalisation and Islam in Bosnia: Foreign Influences and their Effectsâ€
Harun KarÄiÄ‡
Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 2010
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14690764.2010.511467

â€œU.S. Didnâ€™t Anticipate Wider Iran Bosnia Roleâ€
Doyle McManus and James Risen
Los Angeles Times, 1996
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-23-mn-61733-story.html

â€œWestern Balkans at the Crossroads: Assessing Influences of Non-Western External Actorsâ€
Barbora ChrzovÃ¡, Anja Grabovac, Martin HÃ¡la, and Jan LaliÄ‡
Prague Security Studies Institute, 2019
https://cepa.org/cepa_files/Western_Balkans_at_the_Crossroads.pdf

â€œIran in the Balkans: A History and a Forecastâ€
Gordon N. Bardos
World Affairs, 2013
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43554740?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Watch other documentaries on religious soft power in Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Islam in Bosnia After Communism: The Saudi Connection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9gCys7lTUQ

Turkeyâ€™s Influence on Bosnian Islam: Neo-Ottomanism Meets Post-Communism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r--Ydvo4DM

To learn more about the activities of the Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project, visit http://bit.ly/ReligiousSoftPower

This video is made possible by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and views expressed in this video are solely the responsibility of the authors and interviewees.