Distinguished diplomat Richard Holbrooke '62 was honored in a memorial ceremony at the United Nations on Thursday afternoon.
"(Holbrooke) believed profoundly in this extraordinary organization. He understood its potential," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, according to a Feb. 17 article in the U.N. News Centre. "But as a realist, he knew its limits … He demanded as much of it as he gave of himself. In other words, everything."
Best remembered for his work brokering the 1995 Dayton Accords, which put an end to the violence in Bosnia, Holbrooke was a veteran public servant under multiple presidents in various roles, most recently as a special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Serving as the United States Ambassador to the U.N. from 1999 to 2001, Holbrooke was also instrumental in getting the Security Council to recognize the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a major security issue and ensuring that the organization continued its missions in Kosovo and Timor-Leste, according to the U.N. News Centre article.
But Ban said in the article, "perhaps his greatest coup was negotiating the historic deal on (withheld) U.S. dues to the United Nations," a task Holbrooke accomplished by convincing dozens of congressmen and foreign ministers of the importance of U.S. aid. The U.S. eventually paid back the entire amount it owed to the organization — just under $1 billion.
Aside from his diplomatic work, Holbrooke was also involved in journalism, working as a managing editor for Foreign Policy magazine in the mid-1970s. While at Brown, he was editor-in-chief of The Herald. According to a University press release, Holbrooke was allowed to leave for France before his sophomore spring semester ended so that he could report on the Big Four Peace Summit for The Herald.
Holbrooke died Dec. 13, 2010, after complications resulting from emergency surgery intended to repair his torn aorta, The Herald reported Dec. 14. Since February 2007, he had been a professor-at-large affiliated with the Watson Institute for International Studies.
President Ruth Simmons and Chancellor Thomas Tisch '76 were in attendance at the U.N. ceremony, according to the University press release.
