To End a War
by Richard Holbrooke
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Description
When President Clinton sent Richard Holbrooke to Bosnia as America's chief negotiator in late 1995, he took a gamble that would eventually redefine his presidency. But there was no saying then, at the height of the war, that Holbrooke's mission would succeed. The odds were strongly against it. As passionate as he was controversial, Holbrooke believed that the only way to bring peace to the Balkans was through a complex blend of American leadership, aggressive and creative show more diplomacy, and a willingness to use force, if necessary, in the cause for peace. This was not a universally popular view. Resistance was fierce within the United Nations and the chronically divided Contact Group, and in Washington, where many argued that the United States should not get more deeply involved. This book is Holbrooke's gripping inside account of his mission, of the decisive months when, belatedly and reluctantly but ultimately decisively, the United States reasserted its moral authority and leadership and ended Europe's worst war in over half a century. To End a War reveals many important new details of how America made this historic decision. What George F. Kennan has called Holbrooke's "heroic efforts" were shaped by the enormous tragedy with which the mission began, when three of his four team members were killed during their first attempt to reach Sarajevo. In Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Paris, Athens, and Ankara, and throughout the dramatic roller-coaster ride at Dayton, he tirelessly imposed, cajoled, and threatened in the quest to stop the killing and forge a peace agreement. Holbrooke's portraits of the key actors, from officials in the White House and the Élysée Palace to the leaders in the Balkans, are sharp and unforgiving. His explanation of how the United States was finally forced to intervene breaks important new ground, as does his discussion of the near disaster in the early period of the implementation of the Dayton agreement. To End a War is a brilliant portrayal of high-wire, high-stakes diplomacy in one of the toughest negotiations of modern times. A classic account of the uses and misuses of American power, its lessons go far beyond the boundaries of the Balkans and provide a powerful argument for continued American leadership in the modern world. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
If you can put aside the fact that this book is basically a love story to Holbrooke from Holbrooke, then there is some very interesting and readable material on how diplomacy is practiced in the modern world.
Quite fascinating reading. I bought it in a bookstore in Dubrovnik, the town that all of sudden was shelled from the mountaincoast by fellow Yugoslavs during the Balkan wars. Dramatic. The most funny description is of the French diplomat entering the Dayton premises during the peace talks and after the security checks with dogs said he won't be sniffed at. Hilarious.
rather tedious but very informative with a first-hand perspective on that whole situation. I was revered in my class as one of the only people who even bothered to finish it, but really, I liked it. My brother picked it up when he saw it laying around, and read it in...a month, no problem. ;-)
Balkans - 1990's
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Author Information
4+ Works 308 Members
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- To End a War
- People/Characters
- Wesley Clark (General)
- Important places
- Yugoslavia; Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Important events
- Bosnian War
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 949.703 — History & geography History of Europe Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria Former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina ∙ Croatia ∙ Kosovo ∙ Montenegro ∙ Macedonia ∙ Serbia ∙ Slovenia) [formerly also Bulgaria]
- LCC
- DR1313.7 .D58 .H65 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Balkan Peninsula History of Balkan Peninsula Yugoslavia History By period 1918- Yugoslav War, 1991-1995
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 302
- Popularity
- 106,556
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.90)
- Languages
- Bosnian, English, German, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
