Three decades later, NATO parliamentarians head to the site of the Dayton Peace Accords

DAYTON, Ohio – Representatives of NATO -aligned nations will gather starting Thursday in the Ohio city where an end to the three-year Bosnian war was brokered three decades ago, unpacking the lessons of the Dayton Peace Accords for navigating global conflicts.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, a transatlantic forum of about 300 parliamentarians from the organization’s 32 member nations, arrives in Dayton for their five-day meeting at a time when the Trump administration has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend NATO allies in Europe without them committing larger percentages of their budgets to defense spending.

It is the first time since 2003 that the event has been held in the United States.

Organizers are framing the 30th anniversary of the 1995 accords — negotiated at Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and signed in Paris later that year — as a celebration of peace and the power of diplomacy.

The NATO Village in the heart of downtown Dayton is festooned with flags of NATO nations, and a host of cultural activities have been planned alongside formal parliamentary proceedings, including art and history exhibits and a series of free lectures open to the public. A Concert for Peace, featuring musicians from symphonies in both Dayton and Sarajevo, will be performed on May 29.

“There’s an excitement in the air,” said Chris Kershner, president and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not only for our community, but for everybody who’s working on it. So everybody is truly excited … They know they’re part of history happening right here.”

Natalie Hudson, a political science professor and executive director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton, said hosting the deal that ended the horrific violence, weaponized rape and ethnic cleansing that had marked the long-running conflict between Bosnia, Serbia and to a lesser extent Croatia in the early 1990s helped shape the city’s character.

“Dayton and Daytonians were very aware at the time of what was happening at Wright-Patt Air Force Base,” she said. “There were prayer vigils. Sarajevo became a sister city to Dayton, and quite a bit of a connection was made. And that idea of Dayton being a city of peace really settled in, and we take great pride in that here in the city.”

That spirit led to the establishment of The International Peace Museum in the city, perhaps the only museum of its kind in the U.S., she said.

Hudson is among a host of speakers who will participate in “The Dayton Dialogue: Conversations about Peace and Security in the Balkans,” four days of panel discussions to be held at the University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts in tandem with the assembly.

Also planned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords is the Think Freedom project, an installation that combined art, history and community engagement. The Old Montgomery County Courthouse will host an exhibit called “Dayton Around the World,” featuring artifacts and stories celebrating the city’s history, which includes being home to the aviation-pioneering Wright brothers.

Gatherings of this magnitude also require security planning. Demonstrators on many sides of the issues could show up to picket or march. The city has spent over $700,000 to rent the fencing and barricades to place around the NATO Village and summit venue downtown, which are closed to the public through Sunday.

Kershner said plans are in place to ensure safety.

“Dayton’s well prepared to host events like this,” he said. “We have a great Dayton Police Department. We’ve worked very closely with Ohio State Highway Patrol, with Homeland Security, with other law enforcement agencies to make sure that everybody’s going to be safe, secure, and well-protected.”

Republican Rep. Mike Turner, head of the U.S. parliamentary delegation, represents Dayton in Congress. He is scheduled to join other dignitaries to kick off the event Thursday afternoon.