“I want to say thank you to everyone in room, because you have remembered the hard-won peace agreement that we worked out here with great difficulty over 30 years ago,” Burns told the audience at the Hope Hotel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base – the very “room where it happened,” as Col. Dustin Richards joked when introducing the guest of honor.
It was here that chief negotiator Richard Holbrooke sequestered the leaders of the warring Serbs, Croats and Muslims and relentlessly hammered out an agreement. In his acceptance speech, Burns paid tribute to the late ambassador and introduced his son, David Holbrooke, who was among the audience: “Your father had a great intellect and a big personality in (the) best possible way as a diplomat. He understood how to connect with people. I saw him here over 21 days of negotiations. I saw his stubbornness, his 21-hour work days where he exhausted all the Balkan leaders, and I think that was by design. Had Richard Holbrooke not been here, had President Clinton not given him free rein, we would have failed, and the war would have ensued.”
Burns’ career after the peace talks included serving as Ambassador to NATO, U.S. Ambassador to Greece and, from 2021 to 2025, as Ambassador to China. He now teaches at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations. Past recipients of the Peace Prize, which is awarded every five years or so, include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Bill Clinton, former Ambassador and Congressman Tony Hall and Richard Holbrooke himself.
Credit: Skip Peterson
Credit: Skip Peterson
“History showed up here”
Exhibiting the modest nature of a born diplomat, Burns devoted much of his speech to the praise of other members of the negotiations team. He singled out two men in the audience with whom he worked closely in 1995: Col. Garald K. “Robbie” Robinson, the commander of the 88th Air Base Wing when Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hosted the peace talks, and retired Lt. Col. John McCance, co-chair of the Dayton Peace Organizing Committee. Earlier in the evening, his co-chair, Dayton City Commissioner Matt Joseph, surprised McCance with a City of Dayton Recognition Award in honor of his work promoting the legacy of the Dayton Peace Accords. “John embodies the spirit of this community that remembers this event, and I am so happy that you honored him this evening,” Burns said in his opening remarks.
Addressing Robinson, Burns recalled the morning 30 years ago “when you had about two minutes’ notice that several thousand people would be descending on your base, and you did a masterful job.”
But Burns’ primary focus during his speech proved to be a group of 18 high school students from Bosnia and Herzegovina who had been visiting the Dayton area for the previous three weeks. Burns had met with them earlier that morning when he presented a Master Class at Wright State University organized by political science professor Laura Luehrmann. “We do need young people to go into government and public service,” Burns exhorted the Bosnian students that morning.
He also addressed the visiting students at the Hope Hotel that evening during a talk that was part history lesson, part inspirational speech.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
“This war was the biggest problem in the world in 1993 and 1994,” he said. “One hundred thousand people had died in the four years of the war. Two million people lost their homes. The country was shattered. We went into Sarajevo just after the Dayton peace agreement and saw a city that had been bombed, a city whose public transportation had completely broken down, with people living in most terrible human conditions that you can imagine. So the imperative toward peace that you are teaching these young people is a great public service. The Dayton community is bringing these kids together and teaching them that peace has to prevail after this horrific war.”
Long before those three weeks in Dayton in 1995, Burns noted, an army of diplomats worked tirelessly for years to end the war in the Balkans. “It was here at Wright-Patterson that these very difficult negotiations took place, and diplomacy overcame a brutal struggle,” Burns said. “It was a struggle for land, for ideology, for extremism in some cases and for power, a struggle that one ethnic group should prevail over another. Dayton provided the answer that the only solution could be a peace agreement.”
At a time when the United States is intensely divided, Burns said, it is worthwhile to remember what was accomplished in Dayton: “This is a time of disunion in our country, with divisions between north and south, red and blue, urban and rural. A lot of people talk down government and say we can’t get things done, but sometimes we should sit back and say the American people did a great thing here and the American government did a great thing. We got a lot done here in Dayton, Ohio.”
Bosnian teenager Lea Anic nodded in approval as Burns spoke, describing him as “very eloquent” and “a very young spirit.”
Anic glanced around the Hope Hotel and Richard C. Holbrooke Conference Center, where the gala was held, recognizing that what happened here changed her life. She has the freedom to pursue the higher education that was denied her parents because of the ongoing conflict.
“If it weren’t for the peace talks, my parents would not have been able to create the life we have today, she said. “My best friend is Serbian and I am Croat. These relationships could not be what they are today were it not for the Dayton peace talks.”
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
David Holbrooke said he was exhilarated by a day in Dayton that included tours of the Dayton Peace Museum, significant peace talk sites at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the laying of a wreath at the Richard C. Holbrooke Memorial Plaza in downtown Dayton at the corner of Salem and Riverview Avenues. His father would have been thrilled by the selection of his friend Nick Burns as the recipient of this year’s Peace Prize. “Nick has dedicated his life to ending wars, and for him to be honored for that means a lot,” said Holbrooke, who directed a 2015 documentary about his father, “The Diplomat,” currently streaming on HBO Max.
It is deeply meaningful to his family, he added, that Dayton not only celebrates but perpetuates his father’s legacy of peace: “Where else in America is peace celebrated like this? Where else is there a plaza honoring a diplomat? Where else is there not one but two peace prizes? Where else is there a peace museum and a peace bridge? In the heart of the city, near where Lincoln stood on Courthouse Square, is the only museum in the country dedicated to peace. History showed up here, and the story is ongoing. It’s so wonderful to see Dayton at the center of it all.”
Rushdie honored with literary peace prize
The Nov. 15 Dayton Peace Prize ceremony bookended a week that began Nov. 9 with a black-tie gala at the Dayton Arcade honoring the winners of the city’s other internationally known peace prize – the annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie was awarded the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Security was notably heightened both at the Arcade and at the Victoria Theatre the day before, when Rushdie participated in the annual DLPP “Conversation with the Authors.”
Rushdie had lived in hiding for many years after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence, or fatwa, in 1989 against Rushdie for his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which Khomeini decreed to be blasphemous. On Aug. 12, 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times just after he stepped onstage for a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
During both of his Dayton appearances, Rushdie spoke candidly about the attack, which nearly killed him and blinded him in one eye. At the “Conversation with the Authors” event, he talked extensively about his new collection of short stories, “The Eleventh Hour” as well as his 2024 memoir, “Knife: Reflections After an Attempted Murder.”
Rushdie told his audience at the Victoria that he did not have an out-of-body experience or see a shimmering light; instead, he felt intensely aware of his body and the thought that he might be dying. “My thoughts flew to my wife and children,” he said. In addition to the horror of the violent act, he was overwhelmed by the courage of the many people who sprang into action to save his life, including a couple from Ohio.
Because of his towering literary reputation, Linda Lombard of Kettering felt a bit apprehensive when she learned she would be sitting next to Rushdie at a private dinner party at the home of University of Dayton President Eric Spina and his wife, Karen, honoring this year’s winners of the DLPP. “But he was so much fun to talk to, and he has a great sense of humor,” Lombard said of Rushdie. “He is a very charming person.”
Lombard described Rushdie as “a pop culture encyclopedia” as they discussed topics ranging from contemporary art to movies to TV series. (Rushdie’s favorites include “Slow Horses” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”) “He gave me reading advice and I gave him TV-watching advice,” Lombard said.
She especially admired the way Rushdie reacted to the younger DLPP authors, reading their works and singling them out for praise. “I would call him avuncular,” she said.
A personal connection
On Monday night, 18 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina buzzed with anticipation before making a community presentation in the Eichelberger Forum at the downtown branch of the Dayton Metro Library.
Students stayed with local host families during the three-week trip, known as the Youth Leadership Program. It is a cooperative venture between the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo and the city of Dayton, which has served as the U.S. Host community for the program since 2019. As the stateside partner for the program, the city of Dayton coordinates all aspects of the U.S. visit, designing the full program itinerary, organizing leadership and civic-engagement activities, arranging host families, and coordinating visits with schools, community organizations, and local leaders. The program managers work closely with the Embassy to ensure the experience aligns with the program’s goals and provides a meaningful immersion into American civic life.
The program gives young leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina an opportunity to develop practical leadership skills, engage in dialogue across cultures, and explore models of civic participation in the United States. They gain confidence, independence, and a deeper understanding of community problem-solving. Just as importantly, they build lasting relationships with peers, mentors, and host families that continue long after the exchange ends.
“The people of Dayton gain the opportunity to connect with remarkable young leaders from abroad, broaden their own global awareness, and strengthen the city’s longstanding legacy as a place committed to peace, dialogue, and international partnership,” noted Miranda Brooks, the stateside program manager. “These exchanges create mutual understanding, spark new friendships, and reaffirm Dayton’s role as a community that welcomes many voices and invests in the next generation of changemakers.”
Three Bosnian teachers who accompanied the students called the trip “a life-changing experience.”
“It is important to see a different perspective and a different timeline and to hear and feel what people in Dayton remember about these things,” observed Aida Sesti. “It was a surprise in a positive manner how much they care about us and how much they know about our country. We are grateful for that.”
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Her colleague Aida Kadic said the teachers were deeply moved by their tour of the International Peace Museum in Dayton: “Here we were so far from home, and there was a peace museum dedicated to us. It brought tears to my eyes.”
When the war ended, these teachers were teenagers, very close in age to the students they are escorting today. Thanks to the Dayton Peace Accords, today’s students never experienced the hardships their teachers grew up with. “The peace talks stopped the war and enabled us to start our normal lives with electricity and food,” said teacher Marija Papic.
The teachers beamed with pride as the students delivered presentations about the projects they will accomplish when they return home to the towns of Livno and Zenica, including a community bulletin board for youth and a covered outdoor public shelter for all ages.
Andrea Jozic spoke for all the students in her concluding remarks, thanking the host families for an “experience that was so special that you have become our real families.”
She concluded, “This proves that 18 young people can make a big change through a combination of friendship and teamwork.”
Montgomery County Commissioner Carolyn Rice, a longtime volunteer with the Dayton Peace Prize Organizing Committee, noted that these students weren’t even born at the time of the Dayton Peace Accords.
“This gives them more of a personal connection with what their parents and grandparents went through,” Rice said. “They will walk away and they will put their stamp on what peace will look like in the future. The Dayton peace accords were never intended to be the ultimate answer. What an opportunity for these students; you never know who will be a future leader, and this could well have been the spark they needed.”
Nick Burns closed his acceptance speech with a nod to these very students. “I am proud to accept this award, but even more proud that you, this community, is keeping this dream alive. You are bringing into the next generation the wisdom of Aristotle — that it’s not enough to win a war, that it is more important to organize the peace. And we made such a peace in Dayton.”
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