Richard Holbrooke: The Obama Administration’s Challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan

On January 7, the Brookings Institution hosted Richard C. Holbrooke, special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, for a conversation on the way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Holbrooke served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001. As assistant secretary of state for Europe, he helped negotiate the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. He also served as President Clinton’s special envoy to Bosnia and Kosovo and special envoy to Cyprus while a private citizen. During the Carter administration Holbrooke served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and was in charge of U.S. relations with China at the time Sino-American relations were normalized in December 1978.

Brookings President Strobe Talbott, who served as deputy secretary of state from 1994 to 2001, introduced Ambassador Holbrooke and led a discussion of the pressing issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan.