To understand defence reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) it is important to know that BiH defence reform is not like defence reform elsewhere within the Euro-Atlantic security sphere. Whereas NATO partners or aspirant nations must transform their armed forces so that they are relevant to the current security environment and capable of contributing to the operational capabilities of the Alliance, BiH must also build a single military force out of two distinct armies who have pursued different paths under the control of the two entities that make up the country. This must be accomplished in an environment characterised by a relatively weak central government, an immature state-level financial framework, a political dynamic that still rewards ethnically-based factionalism over more broadly-based political, economic or social programmes, and a multiplicity of international actors. As such, NATO models applied in other theatres cannot be uniformly applied in BiH. Defence reform in BiH is intensely political and wholly different.