Krithika Varagur is an American writer and journalist based in Indonesia. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The New Republic, among others. (May 2018)
Today, the “American interest” in Bosnia is extremely murky. It’s not simply that the US has taken a back seat in the Balkans, as it did during the Obama administration, but that Trump, who once brought Bannon into the spotlight, may tacitly approve of Bannon’s European antics, despite their alleged falling-out. Trump, after all, is also fond of nationalist leaders and is hostile to the EU. Bosnia’s eighth postwar general election is scheduled for October 7, and the foreign influence of the aforementioned Americans and an ascendant Russia may tip the volatile state away from the liberal international order to which it was conditionally admitted after the war.
Mahathir Mohamad’s campaign promise was to obtain a pardon from prison for Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy whom he, Mahathir, had once seen jailed, if his electoral alliance with Anwar’s wife won in this month’s general election. This unlikely-seeming team of former rivals buried their differences in the single-minded hope of ousting the spectacularly corrupt administration of Malaysia’s most recent prime minister, Najib Razak. Their success was stunning, but no one knew what would happen once Najib’s re-election bid was rejected. After all, Malaysia had never before seen a democratic transfer of power.
