Obama names official in charge of Balkans

U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed Philip Gordon to be his chief official in the State Department responsible for the Balkans. Obama’s proposal must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, in order to make Gordon assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, the top state department official to deal with the region, taking over from Daniel Fried. Obama names official in charge of Balkans Gordon was the director for Europe in former president Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) in 1998-99. According to the internet version of weekly European Voice, two other senior foreign policy figures in the new Democratic administration also hail from Brookings – Susan Rice, ambassador to the United Nations in New York, and Ivo Daalder, Obama's nominee as envoy to NATO in Brussels. Obama is still putting together his foreign policy team, and since he has already named eminent diplomats who were involved in the Balkans in the 1990s to some important positions, analysts are talking about a so-called “Balkan connection”. Richard Holbrooke, known for helping to create the Dayton Peace Accord ending the war in Bosnia in 1995, is Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke will soon be working with Peter Galbraith, who was named last month as UN's deputy envoy to Afghanistan. Galbraith was the first U.S. ambassador to Croatia after it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. He was the diplomat who signaled to the Croatian government that the Clinton administration did not oppose Iranian arms shipments to the Bosnian government via Croatia, European Voice writes. In 1995, Galbraith in effect gave the green light to Croatian Operation Storm to retake Serb-held territories. The offensive paved the way for the Dayton accords, the weekly writes. Operation Storm also drove a quarter of a million ethnic Serbs from their homes.

Obama names official in charge of Balkans

Gordon was the director for Europe in former president Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) in 1998-99.

According to the internet version of weekly European Voice, two other senior foreign policy figures in the new Democratic administration also hail from Brookings – Susan Rice, ambassador to the United Nations in New York, and Ivo Daalder, Obama's nominee as envoy to NATO in Brussels.

Obama is still putting together his foreign policy team, and since he has already named eminent diplomats who were involved in the Balkans in the 1990s to some important positions, analysts are talking about a so-called “Balkan connection”.

Richard Holbrooke, known for helping to create the Dayton Peace Accord ending the war in Bosnia in 1995, is Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Holbrooke will soon be working with Peter Galbraith, who was named last month as UN's deputy envoy to Afghanistan. Galbraith was the first U.S. ambassador to Croatia after it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.

He was the diplomat who signaled to the Croatian government that the Clinton administration did not oppose Iranian arms shipments to the Bosnian government via Croatia, European Voice writes.

In 1995, Galbraith in effect gave the green light to Croatian Operation Storm to retake Serb-held territories. The offensive paved the way for the Dayton accords, the weekly writes.

Operation Storm also drove a quarter of a million ethnic Serbs from their homes.