Robert S. Gelbard

Robert Sidney Gelbard (born March 6, 1944) is an American diplomat and former United States Ambassador to Bolivia (1988–1991) and Indonesia (1999–2001). He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, and is a 1964 graduate of Colby College and a 1979 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he received a Master of Public Administration.

Robert S. Gelbard
President Ronald Reagan with Robert S. Gelbard
United States Ambassador to Indonesia
In office
October 18, 1999 – October 14, 2001
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byJ. Stapleton Roy
Succeeded byRalph Leo Boyce
United States Ambassador to Bolivia
In office
October 11, 1988 – July 20, 1991
PresidentRonald Reagan
George H.W Bush
Preceded byEdward Morgan Rowell
Succeeded byCharles R. Bowers
Personal details
Born (1944-03-06) March 6, 1944
New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma materColby College
Harvard University

In the Clinton administration, he was an envoy to the Balkans.[1] In the Spring of 1998, he met with Slobodan Milosevic and warned him about NATO's possible use of military force against Serbia.[1] By May 1998, he suggested to the White House that they bomb Serbia, but the idea was originally rejected by NSA Sandy Berger.[1]

In February of that year, Gelbard described the Kosovo Liberation Army, Milosevic's foe in the Kosovo war as "without any questions, a terrorist group" and added that "we condemn very strongly terrorist activities in Kosovo."[2]

Gelbard currently sits on the Atlantic Council's[3] Board of Directors.

Lobbying activities

Gelbard is the founder and chairman of Washington Global Partners LLC, a lobbying and consulting outfit based in Washington, DC. In October 2011, the Economist reported that Gelbard lobbied to discredit the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala and its current director, Francisco Dall'Anese. Dall'Anese suggested that the lobbying campaign was funded by private sector opponents of the Commission's investigation of Guatemala's wealthy former interior minister, Carlos Vielmann, on charges of orchestrating extrajudicial killings.[4][5] In February 2012, Gelbard joined the public policy and regulation practice at SNR Denton.[6] In response to the accusations concerning the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, Gelbard wrote in The Economist: "Based on two decades of experience in democratic institution-building, law enforcement and counter-narcotics, I have criticised the overall efforts of Francisco Dall'Anese, who heads CICIG, as being not aggressive enough compared with those of Carlos Castresana, his predecessor, and in light of the dire situation facing Guatemala."[7]

References
  1. Eric Moskowitz and Jeffrey S. Lantis, 'Conflict in the Balkans', in Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council, ed. Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, p.256
  2. Shenon, Philip (March 13, 1998). "U.S. Says It Might Consider Attacking Serbs". The New York Times.
  3. "Board of Directors". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  4. "Parachuting in the prosecutors". The Economist. 2011-10-15.
  5. "Fugitive Guatemalan official arrested". CNN. 2010-12-16.
  6. "K Street Files: SNR Denton Nabs Gelbard". Roll Call. 2012-02-22.
  7. Gelbard, Robert (October 29, 2011). "On Guatemala, Myanmar, Occupy Wall Street, black women, investments, Cyprus, Iran". The Economist.
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