Nation-building authority James F. Dobbins dies at 81
His career in the foreign service has taken him around trouble spots around the world, including Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans and the Afghanistan, where he led efforts to rebuild the war. torn countries.
James F. Dobbins, an American diplomat whose career took him to Haiti, Afghanistan and many points in between, and who was at the once respected as a peace negotiator and widely regarded as the world's leading authority on nation-building, died Monday in Washington. He was 81.
His sons, Christian and Colin Dobbins, said he died in hospital of complications from Parkinson's disease.
Until the 1990s, Mr. Dobbins was best known for his behind-the-scenes role in some of the most sensitive transatlantic issues of the Cold War, including trade negotiations and the movement of nuclear weapons on the chessboard of Western Europe. .
His trajectory changed in 1993, when he was asked to oversee the US withdrawal from Somalia. Although he had no prior experience in the field or in Africa, he was later tasked with overseeing all peacekeeping matters at the State Department, including the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
>A stint as special envoy to Haiti followed, during the American intervention in 1994 and 1995. In the late 1990s, he was assigned to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Each time, Mr. Dobbins deepened his experience of rebuilding war-torn societies, developing insights into a hugely complex foreign policy conundrum. He led the diplomatic component of NATO's air campaign in Kosovo in 1999, then helped manage peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts there.
The United States had already rebuilt nations, including post-war Germany. and Japan. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the old world order, nation building moved to the top of the foreign policy agenda.
Mr. Dobbins became its main practitioner. He drew on America's past experiences, but he also recognized that the difficulties the country faced at the turn of the millennium - simultaneously involving security, economic and political challenges - were different from those it faced. after World War II.
"He had an insatiable appetite for understanding concepts, theory at his fingertips," said Douglas Lute, the former US ambassador to NATO, during a telephone interview. "And he paired that with a very honed instinct for how to actually do it in the field."
He advised pragmatism, warning that there was no one-size-fits-all solution to every country's problems. Yet he repeatedly stressed the need to establish security first, after which, he said, political and economic redevelopment could proceed safely.
When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr. Dobbins was chosen as an emissary to the anti-Taliban opposition and then to the new government. On a rainy day in Kabul in December 2001, he proudly presided over the reopening of the United States Embassy, which had been closed in 1989.
"We are here, and we are here to stay,” he said.
Although he played this pivotal role, he went on to criticize the efforts of the government in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, especially after he retired in 2002, when he became director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"His quality of analysis has not been compromised by his personal involvement," said Meghan O'Sullivan, director of...
His career in the foreign service has taken him around trouble spots around the world, including Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans and the Afghanistan, where he led efforts to rebuild the war. torn countries.
James F. Dobbins, an American diplomat whose career took him to Haiti, Afghanistan and many points in between, and who was at the once respected as a peace negotiator and widely regarded as the world's leading authority on nation-building, died Monday in Washington. He was 81.
His sons, Christian and Colin Dobbins, said he died in hospital of complications from Parkinson's disease.
Until the 1990s, Mr. Dobbins was best known for his behind-the-scenes role in some of the most sensitive transatlantic issues of the Cold War, including trade negotiations and the movement of nuclear weapons on the chessboard of Western Europe. .
His trajectory changed in 1993, when he was asked to oversee the US withdrawal from Somalia. Although he had no prior experience in the field or in Africa, he was later tasked with overseeing all peacekeeping matters at the State Department, including the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
>A stint as special envoy to Haiti followed, during the American intervention in 1994 and 1995. In the late 1990s, he was assigned to Bosnia and Kosovo.
Each time, Mr. Dobbins deepened his experience of rebuilding war-torn societies, developing insights into a hugely complex foreign policy conundrum. He led the diplomatic component of NATO's air campaign in Kosovo in 1999, then helped manage peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts there.
The United States had already rebuilt nations, including post-war Germany. and Japan. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the old world order, nation building moved to the top of the foreign policy agenda.
Mr. Dobbins became its main practitioner. He drew on America's past experiences, but he also recognized that the difficulties the country faced at the turn of the millennium - simultaneously involving security, economic and political challenges - were different from those it faced. after World War II.
"He had an insatiable appetite for understanding concepts, theory at his fingertips," said Douglas Lute, the former US ambassador to NATO, during a telephone interview. "And he paired that with a very honed instinct for how to actually do it in the field."
He advised pragmatism, warning that there was no one-size-fits-all solution to every country's problems. Yet he repeatedly stressed the need to establish security first, after which, he said, political and economic redevelopment could proceed safely.
When the United States invaded Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr. Dobbins was chosen as an emissary to the anti-Taliban opposition and then to the new government. On a rainy day in Kabul in December 2001, he proudly presided over the reopening of the United States Embassy, which had been closed in 1989.
"We are here, and we are here to stay,” he said.
Although he played this pivotal role, he went on to criticize the efforts of the government in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, especially after he retired in 2002, when he became director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"His quality of analysis has not been compromised by his personal involvement," said Meghan O'Sullivan, director of...What's Your Reaction?
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