In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a vast and sprawling marketplace sprang up as peace accords were going into effect, bringing three and a half years of bloody ethnic fighting more or less to a conclusion. The place, Arizona Market, was created, fostered and supported by the international community (‘IC’), which for years would hype it as a shining example of capitalism, evidence of the positive impact of the political and economic engineering that takes place with internationally assisted post-war reconstruction.

The internationals present during the early days after the Dayton Peace Accords, mostly military, diplomatic and humanitarian actors, pointed to Arizona Market as the one place in Bosnia where Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks interacted peaceably. Early narratives about the Market expressed faith in its ability to spur peaceful relations between warring ethnicities through the neutrality of commerce, citing it as an example of how the free market transition could overcome ethnic disharmony in greater Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For quite some time, the IC ignored the fact that women were being sold in the market place, like slaves at auction, to be sent to brothels all over the region and beyond. They turned a blind eye to the human trafficking, even though (or perhaps because) some of them were themselves purchasing and selling women for sex and other indentured services. When stories began emerging outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina about human trafficking emanating from the hub of Arizona Market, the narrative abruptly changed to one describing it as a dark and seedy place, full of corruption and hidden criminal activity. Thus, the narratives surrounding Arizona Market are conflicting; and perhaps all hold some truth. It was in fact a place to buy the goods necessary for daily survival when there were none to be found elsewhere in decimated post-war Bosnia, but it was also a place to buy human beings to satisfy the sexual demands of the internationals and international money flooding into the region.

This chapter will employ the example of Arizona Market to illustrate some of the harms that emanate from the politico-economic engineering that takes place in early phases of post-conflict reconstruction, in particular the harms that accrue for women.