At 43°52′0″N, 18°25′0″E, Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Formerly, the city was known as the “Jerusalem of the West”, where Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, and Jewish citizens lived side by side peacefully for centuries. From 1992-1996, the Yugoslav People’s Army and the Army of Republika Srpska sieged Sarajevo from the surrounding hills, marking the longest siege in the history of modern warfare and ethnically stratifying the city. Today, the scars of the siege remain visible around the city and the psychological trauma can be heard, woven throughout the Sarajevans’ trademark black humor.

As the home of the national government, the international community, and the largest university in the country, Sarajevo is the cosmopolitan center of Bosnia. Its citizens, Sarejevans and those originally from elsewhere in Bosnia, hold high hopes for a peaceful and multicultural future. In my conversations, the Sarajevans’ idea of the Bosnian nation is the most inclusive idea I have encountered yet. However, against the nationalism found elsewhere in Bosnia (particularly in the Republika Srpska and the Croatian community West of Mostar) the future of this inclusive Bosnian identity is uncertain. Despite Sarajevo’s legacy of multiculturalism and desire for a multicultural future, the city remains a casualty of the ethnic cleansing campaigns of the 90s: approximately 90% of Sarajevans are Bosniaks. To the east of Sarajevo lies Istočno Sarajevo, formerly Srpsko Sarajevo. Technically a separate city, Istočno Sarajevo is ethnically Serb, and was considered part of Sarajevo before the war.