I’m delighted to share the news that our esteemed colleague, Ambassador David J. Scheffer, was named a Fall 2013 Berlin Prize Fellow.
The American Academy in Berlin was established in 1994 by Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke to promote dialogue and understanding between Americans and Germans. As part of this mission, they sponsor the Berlin Prize to create an opportunity for scholars and artists to have the time and resources to expand their work through independent projects, and to engage with their German counterparts.
David will use his Fellowship to develop an in-depth examination of American policy-making during the Yugoslav wars, with particular focus on the years 1993 through 1996. During the first term of the Clinton Administration, he served on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council and as senior counsel to Dr. Madeleine Albright, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He will draw upon those experiences to write a comprehensive narrative about how policy was formulated and executed by the United States as war and atrocities swept over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, and how initiatives at the United Nations and within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization confronted realpolitik in national capitals and among the major players on the ground.
David is the author of All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals, which chronicles his work in the Clinton Administration, including during its second term when he served as the first U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes issues and was instrumental in creating war crimes tribunals for atrocity crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. He led the U.S. delegation in negotiations creating the International Criminal Court. In addition to his writing and teaching, David also serves as the UN Secretary-General’s special expert on United Nations assistance to the Khmer Rouge trials.
His excellent scholarship and advocacy help has aided greatly in the development of meaningful international justice mechanisms. This Fellowship will allow him to expand that important work.
Congratulations to David!