RIP, Richard C. Holbrooke

This is a joint post with Nancy Birdsall and Wren Elhai.Through the course of our work on a U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan over the past year, anytime anyone asked us who we were trying to reach, whom we hoped to influence, our answer started with one name: Richard Holbrooke. No matter who else we hoped might read them, our recommendations have been addressed-- quite literally-- to Ambassador Holbrooke himself. We addressed five open letters directly to him as the bearer of the huge responsibility he accepted from President Obama and Secretary Clinton to shape American policy in Pakistan (and in Afghanistan)-- only the last in a long, long list of issues to bear his imprint. His passing came much too soon.For a more personal remembrance of Ambassador Holbrooke, see George Packer’s latest in the New Yorker.