Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Richard Holbrooke with Baker Institute founding director Edward P. Djerejian, both on the left, at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2010. From right are former Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad of Afghanistan and Ambassador Husain Haqqani of Pakistan.
Richard Holbrooke’s untimely passing is a tragic loss for his family, friends and colleagues throughout the world. I met Richard early on when we both were young Foreign Service Officers in Morocco in 1970. He was head of the Peace Corps there, and I was at the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca. His dynamism and passion for diplomacy and foreign affairs were evident at the beginning of his long and illustrious career. Whatever he engaged in, he did with vigor and enthusiasm.
Richard was a sharp thinker, and he adopted the Socratic method of inquiry, posing hard questions and debating hypotheses until he came to his own assessment of what needed to be done. When we would meet informally over the years, he would never fail to virtually exhaust my knowledge of Middle East issues; in that respect, he always made me pay for our lunches. He was a tough but agile negotiator who was instrumental in brokering the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. That hallmark achievement is a major part of his legacy. From Vietnam through the Balkans to Afghanistan and Pakistan, he took on the most difficult foreign policy assignments. His was a most meaningful life. He served his country with excellence, and for that we are indebted to him.
In my last meeting with Richard at the White House Correspondents dinner in Washington earlier this year, we were talking with the ambassadors of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Richard was characteristically working his brief at every opportunity. Always interested in engaging the public, Richard had spoken at the Baker Institute in October 2002 about “America and the World Today.” I invited him to return to give a keynote speech on U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and meet with Rice University students. He agreed to come and relished the role of mentor and role model to young people. I truly regret that we will not be able to benefit from Richard’s presence amongst us here. May he rest in peace — a cause to which he devoted his life.
Prior to joining the Baker Institute as its founding director, The Honorable Edward P. Djerejian served in the U.S. Foreign Service for eight presidents. He was U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1993-1994, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations from 1991-1993, as well as U.S. ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic from 1988-1991. Djerejian is the author of “Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador’s Journey Through the Middle East.”