May 30th

Today was my first day at the Nansen Dialogue Centre (NDC) in Mostar. Orientation only lasted about an hour. Elvir Duliman, the project coordinator, briefed me on their current student ethno-integration project that will be coming to a close within a week or so. Soon after, he introduced me to the different material I need to read before actually getting started with the internship. One of his co-workers gave me three yearly reports to read from 2000, 2003, and 2004 that show NDC’s specific objectives for that year and their achievements. I think this is basically just to get a better feel for what this organization actually does. The last piece of material is a 40 page document of research from NDC and Safeworld that provides a community-level perspective on the current stalemate and encourages international actors to look beyond the immediate deadlock in BiH, thus forcing us to consider how their engagement can contribute to the minimizing longer-term threats to the country’s delicate stability. My second internship, GAP, was established by the United States and therefore had the day off today because it is Memorial Day after all. However, I will have my first day with them tomorrow morning.