Land in “Peace Cartography”: Visions of Land in Mapping the Division of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract The 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was qualified as map-driven: it witnessed cycles of violence influenced by maps of territorial claims, while cartographic solutions visualized the division of the country within different peace accords. The participants in the peace talks considered ethnic, military, and other criteria for the territorial organization of the country while describing portions of its land as “empty,” “important,” “worthless,” or “theoretical.” These valorizations were based on choropleth and military maps with terrain simulations, which made tangible the results of seeing and dividing land as more or less valuable. The article draws on critical and processual perspectives in cartography to analyse archival maps produced during this war, complemented by narrative accounts of mapping processes and contextualized within the history of “peace cartography” (such as WWI peace negotiations). The main argument is that cartography was constitutive to visions of divided BiH by influencing the distinction between valuable and worthless land, which shaped the process of homogenizing the complex spatial reality of BiH in maps. In addition, the extensive use of maps set in motion an abstraction of land, which enabled ad hoc and pragmatic solutions while allowing negotiators to narrate them as results of expertise and excellence. Finally, to illustrate the long-term implications of this “peace cartography” in the material landscapes, the article reports on the initial findings of an ongoing spatial analysis that traces its appropriations in consequent ethno-nationalist land gains.