THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 25 For four years in the early 1990s, a horrific war raged in the Balkans following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. After witnessing ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and a refugee crisis not seen in Europe since World War II, as well as coming to terms with the fact that a more powerful intervention was needed, the United States embarked on a mission to end the conflict in 1995. Between August and October 1995, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke and his team shuttled between Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Zagreb, negotiating ceasefire conditions and outlining the terms of an eventual peace agreement. On November 1, 1995, representatives from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia met at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, for proximity peace talks. Twentyone days later, the General Framework Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, commonly known as the Dayton Peace Accords, was reached, beginning the complex peace implementation process that continues to this day. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) collected oral history accounts from U.S. officials involved in the 1990s efforts to bring stability to the Western Balkans and subsequent implementation of the accords. ADST combined these with an extensive collection of oral history on the Balkans already in its archive and with accounts from the U.S. Department of State’s Dayton Accords History Project to create an interactive digital anthology. The anthology offers a historical narrative and lessons learned that are helpful in training the next generation of America’s national security leaders; it also illustrates the dedication and contributions of U.S. Foreign Service officers to making the United States “safer, stronger, and more prosperous.” The following excerpts, drawn from the anthology, reflect the evolution of U.S. engagement in the Balkans as seen through the eyes of U.S. diplomats—from the optimism that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain, through the challenges of ending the Yugoslav conflict, to the Dayton Peace Accords and their enduring legacy. For more firsthand accounts on the subject, visit the digital interactive anthology at https://adst.org/dayton-accords/. —Fran Leskovar Optimism Regarding Peacekeeping in the Post–Cold War World By Karl L. Inderfurth This was a time [the early 1990s] when there were great hopes for the United Nations (UN) and for peacekeeping. The Cold War was over. Peacekeepers had just a few years earlier been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. … But there were also two looming problems. The immediate issue was what was happening in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia and, specifically, what to do about [Slobodan] Milosevic and the attempt by the Serbs to “ethnically cleanse” Bosnia. Everyone was reading these horror stories in the press about the Balkans. The Balkans were at war. What would happen to Kosovo and Macedonia and Croatia? This was part of the breakup, the fallout if you will, of the end of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia was disintegrating. Karl L. Inderfurth, a former ambassador, served as U.S. representative for special political affairs and deputy U.S. representative on the United Nations Security Council between 1993 and 1997. Fran Leskovar is the project manager for the Dayton Peace Accords Oral History Project at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST), a nonpartisan 501 (c)(3) educational organization located at the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center. ADST is dedicated to capturing, preserving, and sharing the experiences of U.S. diplomats. A Centauro armored car of the Italian army enters Sarajevo on January 11, 1996, during the NATO intervention following the Dayton Accords. DINO FRACCHIA
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