Peter W. Galbraith
Encyclopedia
Peter Woodard Galbraith is an author, academic, commentator, policy advisor, and former United States diplomat. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped uncover Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Kurds
. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia
, where he was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut
Agreement that ended the war in that country. His testimonies helped reveal ethnic cleansing of its Serb minority, the joint criminal enterprising being found by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
in 2011. Beginning in 2003, Galbraith acted as an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government
in northern Iraq
. As an author and commentator, he argued that Iraq has broken up and that the US occupation authorities should not try to build a strong central government over Kurdish objections. In 2009, Galbraith was appointed United Nations' Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan
where he contributed to exposing the massive fraud that took place in the 2009 Afghanistan Presidential Elections
.
– one of the leading economists of the 20th century – and Catherine (Kitty) Merriam Atwater
, and is the brother of economist James K. Galbraith
. After attending the Commonwealth School
, he earned an A.B. degree from Harvard College
, an M.A. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center
. He is married to Tone Bringa, a Norwegian social anthropologist. They have two children together and live in Vermont.
Galbraith was a good friend of the twice-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
, dating back to their student days at Harvard and Oxford Universities, and was instrumental in securing Bhutto's release from prison in Pakistan for a medical treatment abroad during the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
.
and took a special interest in the Kurdish regions of Iraq
. In 1987, he uncovered Saddam Hussein's systematic destruction of Kurdish villages and a year later wrote the "Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988
" which would have imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq because of the gassing of the Kurds. The bill unanimously passed the Senate but was opposed by the Reagan Administration as "premature" and did not become law.
During the 1991 Iraqi Kurdish uprising, Galbraith traveled throughout rebel-held northern Iraq, narrowly escaping across the Tigris
as Iraqi forces recaptured the area. His written and televised accounts provided early warning of the catastrophe overtaking the civilian population and contributed to the decision to create a safe haven in northern Iraq. In 1992, Galbraith brought out of northern Iraq 14 tons of captured Iraqi secret police documents detailing the atrocities that had been committed against the Kurds. Galbraith’s work in Iraqi Kurdistan
is chronicled in Samantha Power
’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books, 2002), and was the subject of a 1992 ABC News Nightline documentary.
. Galbraith was actively involved in the Croatia and Bosnia peace processes. He was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut
Agreement that ended the war in Croatia by providing for peaceful reintegration of Serb-held Eastern Slavonia into Croatia. From 1996 to 1998, Galbraith served as de facto Chairman of the international commission charged with monitoring implementation of the Erdut Agreement. Galbraith helped devise and implement the strategy that ended the 1993-94 Muslim-Croat War and participated in the negotiation of the Washington Agreement
that established the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was co-chairman of the Croatia peace process (“the Z-4 process”) that produced several agreements between the Croatian government and rebel Serbs
and the U.S. witnessed at signing of Erdut Agreement
.
During the war years, Galbraith was responsible for U.S. humanitarian programs in the former Yugoslavia and for U.S. relations with the UNPROFOR mission headquartered in Zagreb. Ambassador Galbraith’s diplomatic interventions facilitated the flow of humanitarian assistance to Bosnia and secured the 1993 release of more than 5,000 prisoners of war held in inhumane conditions by Bosnian Croat forces.
to produce a new treaty governing the exploitation of oil and gas in the Timor Sea. The resulting Timor Sea Treaty
will double the GNP of East Timor, and is believed to be the first time the United Nations has a negotiated a bilateral treaty on behalf of a state. He also led the UNTAET/East Timor negotiating team during eighteen months of negotiations with Indonesia aimed at normalizing relations and resolving issues arising from the end of the Indonesian occupation.
and the PUK
, the two main Kurdish parties of Iraq, particularly with a view to encouraging the emergence of a strongly decentralised state. In his book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End, which was published in 2006, Galbraith wrote on page 166 that "in May 2003, I realised that the Kurdish leaders had a conceptual problem in planning for a federal Iraq. They were thinking in terms of devolution of power – meaning that Baghdad grants them rights. I urged that the equation be reversed. In a memo I sent Barham [Salih] and Nechirvan [Barzani] in August, I drew a distinction between the previous autonomy proposals and federalism: '[...] The Constitution should state that the Constitution of Kurdistan, and laws made pursuant to the Constitution, is the supreme law of Kurdistan. Any conflict between laws of Kurdistan and the laws of or Constitution of Iraq shall be decided in favor of the former.'" Galbraith wrote that his ideas on federalism "eventually became the basis of Kurdistan's proposals for an Iraq constitution".
Galbraith favors the independence – legal or de facto – of the northern region of Iraq known as Iraqi Kurdistan
. In the End of Iraq, Galbraith advocates acceptance of a "partition" of Iraq into three parts (Kurd, Shiite Arab, and Sunni Arab) as part of a new U.S. "strategy based on the reality of Iraq", and argues that the U.S.'s "main error" in Iraq has been its attempt to maintain Iraq as a single entity.
Galbraith responded in a letter to the Rutland Herald
that "[e]ven a superficial analysis would show that [the allegations] could not be true. At the time the Iraqi Constitution was negotiated in 2005, I was a private citizen with no connection whatsoever with the U.S. government. In short, I was in no position to push through anything. At the request of Kurdistan's leaders, I did offer them advice on how to negotiate best to achieve their goals. But I never participated in any negotiations and was never in the room when they took place."
, Afghanistan
, amongst others. He has contributed opinion columns in relation to these issues for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times
, the Guardian
, The Independent
and the New York Review of Books. On Iraq, he has consistently argued that "[c]ivil war and the breakup of Iraq are more likely outcomes [of the invasion of Iraq] than a successful transition to a pluralistic Western-style democracy". He has also argued that the Bush administration "has put the United States on the side of undemocratic Iraqis who are Iran's allies". On the 2009 Afghan Presidential Elections
, he wrote in the New York Times that "[if] the second round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections [...] is a rerun of the fraud-stained first round, it will be catastrophic for that country and the allied military mission battling the Taliban and Al Qaeda." After the election's second round was canceled, he wrote that "[t]he decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to cancel the second round and declare the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, the victor concludes a process that undermined Afghanistan's nascent democracy."
, the U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan, was announced as the next United Nations
' Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan on March 25, 2009 but abruptly left the country in mid September 2009 at the request of UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Kai Eide
following a dispute over the handling of the reported fraud in the 2009 Afghan presidential election
- and on September 30, the UN announced that he had been removed from his position by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
.
In response to his firing, Galbraith told The Times
, "I was not prepared to be complicit in a cover-up or in an effort to downplay the fraud that took place. I felt we had to face squarely the fraud that took place. Kai downplayed the fraud.". When Eide announced his own stepping down in December, 2009, he did not do so voluntarily, according to Galbraith, though Eide has said it was a voluntary departure.
In December 2009, Kai Eide and Vijay Nambiar accused Galbraith of proposing enlisting the White House
in a plan to force the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to resign, and to install a more Western-friendly figure as president of Afghanistan. According to reports of the plan, which was never realized, the new government would be led by the former finance minister Ashraf Ghani
, or by the former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali
. Karzai's term expired May 21, 2009, and the Supreme Court, in a controversial decision, extended until voting on August 20, 2009. Galbraith flatly denied there was a plan to oust Karzai. He said he and his staff merely had internal discussions on what to do if a runoff for the presidency were delayed until May 2010 as a result of the fraud problems and other matters. Karzai's continuation in office a full year after the end of his term would have been unconstitutional and unacceptable to the Afghan opposition. Galbraith explained that the internal discussions concerned avoiding a constitutional crisis, that any solution would have required the consent of both Karzai and the opposition, and the UN's involvement was consistent with its good offices role. He noted that Kai Eide, his chief accuser, proposed replacing Karzai with an interim government a month later in a meeting with foreign diplomats in Kabul.
The United Nations announced that Galbraith had initiated legal action against the United Nations over his dismissal. The United Nations has an internal justice system under which such challenges can be lodged. Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said the reason Galbraith "was terminated was that the secretary general determined that such action would be in the interests of the organization".
, from 1975 to 1978. Later, he was Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College
in 1999 and between 2001 and 2003. In 2003, he resigned from the U.S. government service after 24 years.
. He would have run as a Democrat against the incumbent Republican governor Jim Douglas
and Progressive Anthony Pollina
in the 2008 elections. On May 13, he announced that he would not be running and said he would back former House Speaker Gaye Symington
instead. On November 2, 2010, he won election to the Vermont State Senate from Windham County as a Democrat.
Galbraith is a senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Halabja poison gas attack
The Halabja poison gas attack , also known as Halabja massacre or Bloody Friday, was a genocidal massacre against the Kurdish people that took place on March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War, when chemical weapons were used by the Iraqi government forces in the Kurdish town of...
. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, where he was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut
Erdut
Erdut is a village and a municipality in eastern Croatia. It is located in the Osijek-Baranja County, eastern Slavonia, 37 km east of Osijek. The elevation of the village of Erdut is 158 m...
Agreement that ended the war in that country. His testimonies helped reveal ethnic cleansing of its Serb minority, the joint criminal enterprising being found by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in 2011. Beginning in 2003, Galbraith acted as an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...
in northern Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. As an author and commentator, he argued that Iraq has broken up and that the US occupation authorities should not try to build a strong central government over Kurdish objections. In 2009, Galbraith was appointed United Nations' Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
where he contributed to exposing the massive fraud that took place in the 2009 Afghanistan Presidential Elections
Afghan presidential election, 2009
The 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan was characterized by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud....
.
Personal life and education
Peter Galbraith is the son of John Kenneth GalbraithJohn Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
– one of the leading economists of the 20th century – and Catherine (Kitty) Merriam Atwater
Catherine Galbraith
Catherine "Kitty" Galbraith , née Catherine Merriam Atwater, was an American author who was the wife of economist and author John Kenneth Galbraith, and the mother of four sons: diplomat and political analyst, Peter W. Galbraith, economist James K. Galbraith, attorney J...
, and is the brother of economist James K. Galbraith
James K. Galbraith
James Kenneth Galbraith is an American economist who writes frequently for mainstream and liberal publications on economic topics. He is currently a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior...
. After attending the Commonwealth School
Commonwealth School
Commonwealth School is an independent high school of about 155 students and 35 faculty members located at 151 Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.-History:...
, he earned an A.B. degree from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, an M.A. from Oxford University, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
. He is married to Tone Bringa, a Norwegian social anthropologist. They have two children together and live in Vermont.
Galbraith was a good friend of the twice-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
, dating back to their student days at Harvard and Oxford Universities, and was instrumental in securing Bhutto's release from prison in Pakistan for a medical treatment abroad during the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
.
U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Galbraith was a professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1979 to 1993. During that time, he published a number of reports about IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and took a special interest in the Kurdish regions of Iraq
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
. In 1987, he uncovered Saddam Hussein's systematic destruction of Kurdish villages and a year later wrote the "Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988
Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988
The Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988 was a United States Senate bill to punish Iraq for chemical weapons attacks on the Kurds at Halabja during the Iran–Iraq War...
" which would have imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq because of the gassing of the Kurds. The bill unanimously passed the Senate but was opposed by the Reagan Administration as "premature" and did not become law.
During the 1991 Iraqi Kurdish uprising, Galbraith traveled throughout rebel-held northern Iraq, narrowly escaping across the Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
as Iraqi forces recaptured the area. His written and televised accounts provided early warning of the catastrophe overtaking the civilian population and contributed to the decision to create a safe haven in northern Iraq. In 1992, Galbraith brought out of northern Iraq 14 tons of captured Iraqi secret police documents detailing the atrocities that had been committed against the Kurds. Galbraith’s work in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
is chronicled in Samantha Power
Samantha Power
Samantha Power is an Irish American academic, governmental official and writer. She is currently a Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council...
’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books, 2002), and was the subject of a 1992 ABC News Nightline documentary.
Ambassador to Croatia
In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Galbraith as the first United States Ambassador to CroatiaUnited States Ambassador to Croatia
The diplomatic post of United States Ambassador to Croatia was created after the disbanding of Yugoslavia and the United States recognizing the new nation of Croatia on April 7, 1992.*Mara M. Letica – Career FSO**Appointed: August 1992...
. Galbraith was actively involved in the Croatia and Bosnia peace processes. He was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut
Erdut
Erdut is a village and a municipality in eastern Croatia. It is located in the Osijek-Baranja County, eastern Slavonia, 37 km east of Osijek. The elevation of the village of Erdut is 158 m...
Agreement that ended the war in Croatia by providing for peaceful reintegration of Serb-held Eastern Slavonia into Croatia. From 1996 to 1998, Galbraith served as de facto Chairman of the international commission charged with monitoring implementation of the Erdut Agreement. Galbraith helped devise and implement the strategy that ended the 1993-94 Muslim-Croat War and participated in the negotiation of the Washington Agreement
Washington Agreement
The Washington Agreement was a ceasefire agreement between the warring Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed in Washington on 18 March 1994 and Vienna. It was signed by Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdžić, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granić and...
that established the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was co-chairman of the Croatia peace process (“the Z-4 process”) that produced several agreements between the Croatian government and rebel Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and the U.S. witnessed at signing of Erdut Agreement
Erdut Agreement
The Erdut Agreement , officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, was the agreement reached on November 12, 1995 between the authorities of the Republic of Croatia and the local Serb authorities of the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia...
.
During the war years, Galbraith was responsible for U.S. humanitarian programs in the former Yugoslavia and for U.S. relations with the UNPROFOR mission headquartered in Zagreb. Ambassador Galbraith’s diplomatic interventions facilitated the flow of humanitarian assistance to Bosnia and secured the 1993 release of more than 5,000 prisoners of war held in inhumane conditions by Bosnian Croat forces.
East Timor
From January 2000 to August 2001, Galbraith was Director for Political, Constitutional and Electoral Affairs for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). He also served as Cabinet Member for Political Affairs and Timor Sea in the First Transitional Government of East Timor. In these roles, he designed the territory’s first interim government and the process to write East Timor’s permanent constitution. During his tenure, Galbraith conducted successful negotiations with AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
to produce a new treaty governing the exploitation of oil and gas in the Timor Sea. The resulting Timor Sea Treaty
Timor Sea Treaty
Formally known as the Timor Sea Treaty between the Government of East Timor and the Government of Australia was signed between Australia and East Timor in Dili, East Timor on May 20, 2002, the day East Timor attained its independence from United Nations rule, for joint petroleum exploration of the...
will double the GNP of East Timor, and is believed to be the first time the United Nations has a negotiated a bilateral treaty on behalf of a state. He also led the UNTAET/East Timor negotiating team during eighteen months of negotiations with Indonesia aimed at normalizing relations and resolving issues arising from the end of the Indonesian occupation.
Involvement in Iraq's constitutional process
From 2003 to 2005, Iraq was involved in a number of negotiations to draft an interim and then a permanent constitution. In that context, Galbraith advised both the KDPKDP
KDP may refer to:*Kurdistan Democratic Party of South Kurdistan*Kurdistan Democratic Party of East Kurdistan*Korea Democratic Party*Khmer Democratic Party*Communist Party of Germany *Kappa Delta Pi...
and the PUK
PUK
PUK may stand for:* Patriotic Union of Kurdistan * Partia e Unitetit Kombėtar * Pin Unlock Key used in GSM mobile phones* Prefectural University of KumamotoPuk may refer to:...
, the two main Kurdish parties of Iraq, particularly with a view to encouraging the emergence of a strongly decentralised state. In his book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End, which was published in 2006, Galbraith wrote on page 166 that "in May 2003, I realised that the Kurdish leaders had a conceptual problem in planning for a federal Iraq. They were thinking in terms of devolution of power – meaning that Baghdad grants them rights. I urged that the equation be reversed. In a memo I sent Barham [Salih] and Nechirvan [Barzani] in August, I drew a distinction between the previous autonomy proposals and federalism: '[...] The Constitution should state that the Constitution of Kurdistan, and laws made pursuant to the Constitution, is the supreme law of Kurdistan. Any conflict between laws of Kurdistan and the laws of or Constitution of Iraq shall be decided in favor of the former.'" Galbraith wrote that his ideas on federalism "eventually became the basis of Kurdistan's proposals for an Iraq constitution".
Galbraith favors the independence – legal or de facto – of the northern region of Iraq known as Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
. In the End of Iraq, Galbraith advocates acceptance of a "partition" of Iraq into three parts (Kurd, Shiite Arab, and Sunni Arab) as part of a new U.S. "strategy based on the reality of Iraq", and argues that the U.S.'s "main error" in Iraq has been its attempt to maintain Iraq as a single entity.
Business Activities
After leaving the US government in 2003, Galbraith set up a consulting firm that provided negotiating and other services to governmental and corporate clients. In this capacity, he served as East Timor's negotiator regarding the gas prone Sunrise field in Timor Sea and assisted the Government of Zambia develop negotiating strategies related to minerals. He had several corporate clients in Iraqi Kurdistan, including DNO, a Norwegian oil company which is currently engaged in exploring oil reserves in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He represented the company on a joint commission with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil in Baghdad. Some Iraqi Arabs complained that, because of his business interests, he should not have advised the Kurds on constitutional issues, even though the Kurds, who asked for his advice, saw no conflict of interest. Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, vice chairman of the Oil and Gas Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said that Mr. Galbraith’s "interference was not justified, illegal and not right, particularly because he is involved in a company where his financial interests have been merged with the political interest."Galbraith responded in a letter to the Rutland Herald
Rutland Herald
The Rutland Herald is the second largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Vermont . It is published in Rutland. With a daily circulation of about 12,000, it is the main source of news geared towards the southern part of the state, along with the Brattleboro Reformer and the Bennington Banner...
that "[e]ven a superficial analysis would show that [the allegations] could not be true. At the time the Iraqi Constitution was negotiated in 2005, I was a private citizen with no connection whatsoever with the U.S. government. In short, I was in no position to push through anything. At the request of Kurdistan's leaders, I did offer them advice on how to negotiate best to achieve their goals. But I never participated in any negotiations and was never in the room when they took place."
Political commentator
Galbraith is a leading commentator on issues including political developments in IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, amongst others. He has contributed opinion columns in relation to these issues for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
and the New York Review of Books. On Iraq, he has consistently argued that "[c]ivil war and the breakup of Iraq are more likely outcomes [of the invasion of Iraq] than a successful transition to a pluralistic Western-style democracy". He has also argued that the Bush administration "has put the United States on the side of undemocratic Iraqis who are Iran's allies". On the 2009 Afghan Presidential Elections
Afghan presidential election, 2009
The 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan was characterized by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud....
, he wrote in the New York Times that "[if] the second round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections [...] is a rerun of the fraud-stained first round, it will be catastrophic for that country and the allied military mission battling the Taliban and Al Qaeda." After the election's second round was canceled, he wrote that "[t]he decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to cancel the second round and declare the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, the victor concludes a process that undermined Afghanistan's nascent democracy."
Deputy U.N. Envoy to Afghanistan
Galbraith, considered a close ally of Richard HolbrookeRichard Holbrooke
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker....
, the U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan, was announced as the next United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan on March 25, 2009 but abruptly left the country in mid September 2009 at the request of UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Kai Eide
Kai Eide
Kai Aage Eide is a Norwegian diplomat. He was appointed the United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on 7 March 2008, a position he held until March 2010 when Staffan de Mistura took over.Eide has previously served as...
following a dispute over the handling of the reported fraud in the 2009 Afghan presidential election
Afghan presidential election, 2009
The 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan was characterized by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud....
- and on September 30, the UN announced that he had been removed from his position by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
.
In response to his firing, Galbraith told The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, "I was not prepared to be complicit in a cover-up or in an effort to downplay the fraud that took place. I felt we had to face squarely the fraud that took place. Kai downplayed the fraud.". When Eide announced his own stepping down in December, 2009, he did not do so voluntarily, according to Galbraith, though Eide has said it was a voluntary departure.
In December 2009, Kai Eide and Vijay Nambiar accused Galbraith of proposing enlisting the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in a plan to force the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to resign, and to install a more Western-friendly figure as president of Afghanistan. According to reports of the plan, which was never realized, the new government would be led by the former finance minister Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani
Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is a prominent politician in Afghanistan and the former chancellor of Kabul University. He is also the chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, an organization set up in 2005 to promote the ability of states to serve their citizens. Before returning to...
, or by the former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali
Ali Ahmad Jalali
Ali Ahmad Jalali is an Afghan American and a Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the United States' National Defense University. He is also a former Interior Minister of Afghanistan, serving in that position from January 2003 to September 2005.Jalali...
. Karzai's term expired May 21, 2009, and the Supreme Court, in a controversial decision, extended until voting on August 20, 2009. Galbraith flatly denied there was a plan to oust Karzai. He said he and his staff merely had internal discussions on what to do if a runoff for the presidency were delayed until May 2010 as a result of the fraud problems and other matters. Karzai's continuation in office a full year after the end of his term would have been unconstitutional and unacceptable to the Afghan opposition. Galbraith explained that the internal discussions concerned avoiding a constitutional crisis, that any solution would have required the consent of both Karzai and the opposition, and the UN's involvement was consistent with its good offices role. He noted that Kai Eide, his chief accuser, proposed replacing Karzai with an interim government a month later in a meeting with foreign diplomats in Kabul.
The United Nations announced that Galbraith had initiated legal action against the United Nations over his dismissal. The United Nations has an internal justice system under which such challenges can be lodged. Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said the reason Galbraith "was terminated was that the secretary general determined that such action would be in the interests of the organization".
Academic career
Galbraith was an assistant professor of Social Relations at Windham College in Putney, VermontPutney, Vermont
Putney is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,634 at the 2000 census.On December 26, 1753 Col.Josiah Willard led a proprietors' petition for a Putney charter which was issued by Governor Benning Wentworth of the New Hampshire Grants under King George II of England...
, from 1975 to 1978. Later, he was Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College
National War College
The National War College of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. It was officially established on July 1, 1946, as an upgraded replacement for the...
in 1999 and between 2001 and 2003. In 2003, he resigned from the U.S. government service after 24 years.
US politics
On January 17, 2008, Galbraith told VPR that he was considering a run for the governorship of VermontVermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. He would have run as a Democrat against the incumbent Republican governor Jim Douglas
Jim Douglas
James H. Douglas is an American politician from the U.S. state of Vermont. A Republican, he was elected the 80th Governor of Vermont in 2002 and was reelected three times with a majority of the vote...
and Progressive Anthony Pollina
Anthony Pollina
Anthony Pollina is a Progressive American politician, who has run several times for elected office in the state of Vermont.-1984 US Congressional Election:...
in the 2008 elections. On May 13, he announced that he would not be running and said he would back former House Speaker Gaye Symington
Gaye Symington
Gaye R. Symington is the former Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly...
instead. On November 2, 2010, he won election to the Vermont State Senate from Windham County as a Democrat.
Galbraith is a senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Writings
- Galbraith, Peter (2006), The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End; Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743294238
- Galbraith, Peter W. (2008), Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies; Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1416562257