Argument

‘Make Them Talk to Each Other’

Lessons in peacemaking from 21 days at Dayton. November 20, 2025, 8:40 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Two men stand on either side of a woman, all dressed formally and holding drinks in glasses. Marton, the woman, wears red and smiles as she looks at a paper one of the men is holding.

Three decades ago, the Dayton Accords ended Bosnia’s savage civil war. Amid ongoing bloodletting in Ukraine and the Middle East today, this success offers enduring lessons in the very human nature of diplomacy.

I was at Dayton, Ohio, inside the high wire fence of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with my late husband, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Negotiations lasted 21 dramatic days. On some of them, I helped Richard and his team cajole, browbeat, and

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