Diplomats from the United States and Europe have failed, for the second time in a month, to agree on a new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, deepening a transatlantic standoff that has exposed sharp divisions within the Western alliance over influence in the Balkans. Meeting in Sarajevo on Tuesday, ambassadors from the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) steering board — including representatives from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, the EU, Canada, Japan and Turkey — could only agree on a temporary solution: Louis J. Crishock, the outgoing American deputy high representative, will serve as acting High Representative until a permanent successor is appointed, with a deadline set for no later than 14 July 2026.

The immediate trigger for the crisis was the abrupt removal of the incumbent High Representative, German politician Christian Schmidt. Schmidt had earlier agreed to resign under pressure from Washington — pressure he described as "enormous and unexpected" — with the understanding he would remain until Bosnian elections in October. The Trump administration subsequently reneged on that arrangement and demanded his immediate departure, a demand that was met on Tuesday. As one analyst put it, this was not a voluntary resignation but the United States effectively forcing Schmidt out.

At the heart of the dispute is Washington's push to install 76-year-old Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi as Schmidt's permanent successor. Landi, currently serving as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta's ambassador to the Vatican, has no significant experience with Bosnia and Herzegovina, though he was once posted to neighbouring Serbia. European capitals — London, Paris and Berlin — have remained unconvinced, rallying instead behind French candidate René Troccaz, France's special envoy for the Western Balkans. Germany also floated Danish diplomat Peter Sørensen, a former EU envoy in Sarajevo, as a possible compromise. The Europeans, however, have struggled to present a fully united front under sustained US pressure.

The row is widely understood to be connected to a broader shift in US policy toward the region. Washington recently announced that its Balkans strategy would henceforth be guided by the pursuit of "direct return" for American companies, rather than what it termed "open-ended institution building." Central to this is a $1 billion gas pipeline contract, the Southern Interconnection, provisionally awarded without tender to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, a US-based firm with limited infrastructure experience but close ties to Donald Trump's associates. Some diplomats in Sarajevo fear that a compliant High Representative could facilitate a redistribution of state land between Bosnia's two entities — the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb-run Republika Srpska — that would clear the way for the pipeline, at the risk of inflaming long-standing tensions. The EU has already warned that the no-tender award could jeopardise Bosnia's path toward European integration.

The stakes extend well beyond a diplomatic appointment. Bosnia and Herzegovina has functioned as an international protectorate since the 1992–95 war, which killed approximately 100,000 people and ended with the US-brokered Dayton Agreement. The High Representative holds sweeping discretionary powers — including the ability to impose laws and remove elected officials — and was designed to oversee peace implementation and guide the country toward greater stability. Schmidt controversially used those powers last year to annul the separatist actions of Republika Srpska's leader, Milorad Dodik, leading to Dodik's removal from his post. The Trump administration subsequently lifted Biden-era sanctions on Dodik, and Donald Trump Jr. visited Banja Luka, Republika Srpska's main city, in the months that followed. Critics warn that the current power struggle, coming alongside Russian calls at the UN Security Council for the Office of the High Representative to be shut down entirely, risks undermining the fragile peace that has held for three decades.