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UÇKHistory and Memory
Life: 1941 – 13 December 2010

Analytical profile · Diplomats

Richard Holbrooke

Richard Holbrooke was a US diplomat, known as the chief negotiator of the 1995 Dayton agreement on Bosnia. On Kosovo, he met KLA representatives in 1998 and in October of that year negotiated with Slobodan Milošević the agreement that led to a partial withdrawal of Serbian forces and the deployment of OSCE verifiers. In March 1999 he made the last diplomatic attempt in Belgrade before the NATO bombing began. He died in 2010.

Source basis

Academic monographs on the diplomacy of 1995–1999.

Man in a dark suit and dotted tie speaking at a microphone.
US diplomat Richard Holbrooke speaking at Brown University, 21 February 2008. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel.Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel · 2008-02-21 · CC BY-SA 3.0

For many Kosovo Albanians, Dayton — which left Kosovo out — revealed the limits of the peaceful strategy [1]. Three years later, Holbrooke's meeting with KLA members was read as a sign that international actors were accepting the KLA as a political reality [2].

The October 1998 agreement temporarily averted air strikes but did not stop the conflict. Scholars debate whether it was a viable settlement or merely a postponement of the crisis [3].

Photographs

Three men seated at a red-covered table signing documents, surrounded by diplomats.
Presidents Slobodan Milošević, Alija Izetbegović and Franjo Tuđman initial the draft of the Dayton Peace Accords, 21 November 1995.Photo: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Brian Schlumbohm · 1995-11-21 · Domen publik (Public domain)
Three seated men signing at a long table, a row of heads of state standing behind them in a hall with red curtains.
Slobodan Milošević, Alija Izetbegović and Franjo Tuđman sign the peace agreement in Paris, 14 December 1995 (Clinton Presidential Library photo).Photo: The Central Intelligence Agency · 1995-12-14 · Domen publik (Public domain)
Black-and-white photo of two men talking face to face, with other officials in the background.
President Clinton talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milošević at the Ambassador's residence in Paris, 14 December 1995, watched by Richard Holbrooke, Warren Christopher, General Wesley Clark and others.Photo: The Central Intelligence Agency · 1995-12-14 · Domen publik (Public domain)
Traditional stone tower houses with red roofs beside a street in Junik.
The Kulla of Brahim Hoxha in Junik, a cultural heritage monument. Photograph taken in 2013.Photo: Sali Shoshi · 2013-10-05 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sources

  1. [1]Tim Judah. Kosovo: War and Revenge. Yale University Press, 2000. https://books.google.com/books/about/Kosovo.html?id=TDmwQgAACAAJ. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  2. [2]David L. Phillips. Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention. The MIT Press, 2012-07-20. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9590.001.0001. Accessed 2026-09-16.
  3. [3]Ivo H. Daalder, Michael E. O’Hanlon. Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo. Brookings Institution Press, 2001-10-01. https://www.brookings.edu/books/winning-ugly/. Accessed 2026-09-16.

Editorial status: Awaiting verificationDrafted from the cited sources; not yet fully reviewed by the editors.

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