Holbrooke, Richard (1941- )

US diplomat. He was appointed head of the US negotiating team in the Balkans in July 1994 and within seven months had persuaded Bosnian Muslim and Croat leaders to sign an accord, leading to the creation of a Bosnian Muslim-Croat federation. He went on to negotiate an overall peace agreement at Dayton, Ohio, in September 1995. However, despite strenuous efforts he failed to secure a peace agreement for the divided island of Cyprus in April 1998. In August 1999, Holbrooke was confirmed by the US Senate as the nation's UN ambassador.

Holbrooke served as an aide to Henry Cabot Lodge II in the Vietnam War and returned to the state department in President Carter's administration, becoming assistant secretary at the age of 35.

On Reagan's election, he left government to take up a financial career in Wall Street but returned to public service under President Bill Clinton, first as ambassador to Germany and then, from 1994, as assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs. Disillusioned with the failure of the US administration to provide leadership in tackling the United Nations crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Holbrooke was on the point of leaving his post when Clinton intervened personally, appointing him US special envoy in the former Yugoslavia. He resigned from the State Department in February 1996 to continue his business career.