As President Barack Obama presses the “reset button” for the United States in terms of foreign affairs, he has wisely enlisted the support of two world-class Americans—former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and career Foreign Service Officer Ambassador Richard Holbrooke—to take on the most significant challenges. Senator Mitchell was the American negotiator/representative to the Good Friday Accords, which ultimately brought peace to Northern Ireland. Ambassador Holbrooke, having begun his career as a young diplomat in Vietnam, capped his career thirty years later by handling the Dayton Accords, which brought peace to the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike should give the President credit for turning to two such skilled public servants.
Senator Mitchell will have a heavy pack to carry on his journey. He takes on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at the conclusion of a recent Israel punitive effort to deter Hamas from firing thousands of missiles into Israeli territory. The wounds from the recent military engagement are still raw. Hamas, the terrorist organization firmly in power in Gaza, is supported directly by Iran and continues to call for the outright destruction of Israel. Meanwhile, Senator Mitchell will find that Israelis are utterly disgusted and exhausted with efforts to make peace with an enemy dedicated to their demise. This overriding sentiment will persist regardless of who wins upcoming Israeli elections. Without a doubt, extremists from both the Palestinian and Israeli sides will do their best to block Senator Mitchell’s efforts. Iran will also use its influence with Hamas hardliners to subsume the Palestinian-Israeli conflict into its own broad disagreements with the West.
Senator Mitchell will literally have to begin with baby steps in order to build confidence among the two sides. He will have to accomplish this knowing full well that others benefit from the violence he is trying to end. Fortunately, Senator Mitchell brings several advantages to the table. He is starting this important work early in the new administration. By contrast, both Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush delayed involvement in the peace process until the end of their respective administrations. Also, Senator Mitchell has handled such intractable problems before. He has seen success and understands the importance of achieving a series of small victories that will improve the lives of common people—all enroute to broader agreements. No one should expect success overnight. Senator Mitchell will need room for maneuver and patience from the White House and from the many individuals around the world who are intensely committed to one side or the other.
Ambassador Holbrooke’s assignment could not be more different. As President Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, he will be responsible for establishing coherence in US policy in the region. He will need to encourage the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to more forcefully engage the Taliban and other anti-coalition militants in order to reestablish security in the borderlands of both countries. Appropriately, Ambassador Holbrooke also brings substantial experience to the task at hand. He was an early proponent of military force in the Balkans to end the killing in that conflict. His view would ultimately prevail and launch him into the role of the hard-nosed lead negotiator on the American side of the Dayton Peace Accords. Additionally, Ambassador Holbrooke’s past service with the United States Agency for Development (USAID), the Peace Corps, as a negotiator at the Paris Peace talks, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and as a journalist and banker provide him with an incredibly broad view and the necessary expertise in fields that require attention in that theater of operations. Ambassador Holbrooke will have to impose himself forcefully on the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan if success is to be achieved. We should all expect that Ambassador Holbrooke will come out of the gate fast and hard; after all, the lives of our sons and daughters depend on him.
If diplomacy provided for celebrity based on performance, both Mitchell and Holbrooke would be rock stars. As this is not the case, these courageous individuals will instead sacrifice significant time away from their families, brave dangerous locales and apply themselves unselfishly in service of the greater interests of the United States. The world is a difficult and dangerous place—yet both carry on nevertheless. For this we should be grateful.
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