The Inaugural Richard C. Holbrooke Forum Workshop

Statecraft and Responsibility

Chairs: Michael Ignatieff and Harold Hongju Koh

The overarching theme of the Forum is responsibility and statecraft in the twenty-first century: how responsibility for managing critical problems—from conflict, civil war, financial crisis, and climate change—is being redistributed in a multipolar world. Each meeting tackles the theme through a specific case study or problem. In June 2014, our focus was on what policy outcomes in Bosnia and Syria tell us about the responsibility for stopping civil war and massacre in the twenty-first century.

In 1995, Holbrooke and the Clinton Administration brought the Bosnian war to an end at Dayton. In 2014, the great powers have failed their responsibilities in Syria. What lessons need to be drawn from the Syrian catastrophe? What does it teach us about the emerging global balance of power? Who must shoulder responsibility to protect civilians from massacre and civil war in the twenty-first century? How must international law and international institutions evolve to regain authority and legitimacy?