Christopher Alexander, Former Deputy Special Representative to the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan and former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan, speaks during a meeting of The Empire Club of Canada at the Royal York Hotel on Front St., Toronto.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
I first met Richard Holbrooke in the spring of 2006, when I was deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan. He was visiting Kabul as president of the Asia Society. We did not know what to expect because his reputation was so much larger than life. His nephew was working with us in the UN mission, and he came at our request. Sparks were flying from the get-go - intellectual sparks.
He understood the importance of 9/11 and Afghanistan to the United States in historical terms. I remember him saying Afghanistan was one of the 20 most important countries in the world, because of its geographical position and its history. Even then he knew that that its neighbours ultimately have to be on board for stability to come.
Despite his strong views, he was willing to change his mind. We flew from Kabul to Herat over the route that author Rory Stewart had walked in The Places In Between in 2002. Mr. Holbrooke found the book tiresome, then later praised it to the skies for capturing the atmosphere of this time in Afghan history. For him, Afghanistan was not a place in between. It became his greatest professional challenge and he understood that our paltry effort prior to President Barack Obama's decision to send additional troops would not yield the result the world wanted.
As the Democrats were almost certain to win the fall election, he visited Kabul again in 2008 - warning the Afghans even then that the slippery slope of corruption would be their undoing. After President Obama's inauguration, he set about moving the yardsticks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan - to ensure that expectations were realistic and we had the means to meet them. He put the United States back into the undisputed driver's seat for the international effort in Afghanistan - a role it had foregone since 2002.
His passing is a tragedy for Afghanistan because the seriousness he invested in setting terms for peace with a larger neighbour will be difficult to replicate. He had seen enough to know that reconciliation could never involve the appeasement of terrorists with little to lose, now bent on wrecking both the Afghan and the Pakistani states.
But he had already built relationships on both sides - first and foremost with Presidents Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari - that were unprecedented for any Westerner since 2001. His diplomacy with both countries had seen ups and downs, as had been the case with his Balkan role. Because of his hallmark tenacity, it was the only prospect of yielding a historic result.
There is still no guarantee of a happy ending in the world's struggle to prevent a Taliban-led insurgency from wreaking a new round of havoc in Afghanistan. But we should be grateful that Ambassador Holbrooke was on the case during this most critical phase. A giant of his profession, his experience was forged in the toughest crucibles his country had to offer, guided at every step by a deep humanity. He would want us all to finish the job.
A former Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Chris Alexander was also Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan.