Promoting Sustainable Economies in the Balkans

Task Force Report
Analysis and policy prescriptions of major foreign policy issues facing the United States, developed through private deliberations among a diverse and distinguished group of experts.

The conflict in Kosovo, less than four years after the brutal civil war in Bosnia, was a wake-up call to the international community. The West and others had once again underestimated the powerful forces of ethnic hatred and historical grievances in the Balkans. According to this independent Task Force report, economic reconstruction alone will not be sufficient to bring long-term peace and stability to the Balkan region, although raising living standards could foster sustainable economic growth and reduce political tensions.

Steven L. Rattner

Deputy Chief Executive, Quadrangle Group

Michael Froman
Michael Froman

President, Council on Foreign Relations

International support and attention is a wasting asset, the report warns, and the countries in the region have only a few years to demonstrate real progress before the international community turns its focus elsewhere. Reform will be difficult. But if the Balkan countries do not reform, there will be severe limits to the amount of assistance they can expect from the outside world, and, in the absence of reform, foreign financial assistance will be of only limited utility. The Balkan counties cannot expect significant international support if they are not committed to taking the necessary steps to put themselves on the right track, and that support will be of only limited utility unless those steps are taken.

More on:

Kosovo

Europe

Development

Moreover, the European Union (EU) will have to articulate more clearly and credibly a path toward European integration for the Balkan economies, since the prospect of integration in the EU may well be the single most important motivating factor for undertaking reform.

More on:

Kosovo

Europe

Development

Task Force Members

Task Force Members:

REGINALD BARTHOLOMEW is vice chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and chairman of Merrill Lynch, Italy. He is a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who served as undersecretary of state and ambassador to Lebanon, Spain, NATO, and Italy.

FRANCO BERNABE is chairman of Andala UMTS SPA, an Italian independent telecommunications company, and former chief executive officer of Telecom Italia SPA. He is also the special representative of the Italian government for the reconstruction of the Balkan region.

KEVIN CLOWE is managing director of AIG Capital Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American International Group, Inc. He is actively involved in AIG's direct investment activities in Bulgaria and elsewhere in the emerging markets.

IVO H. DAALDER, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was director for European affairs at the National Security Council from 1995-96, where he was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy toward Bosnia. He is the author of Getting to Dayton: The Making of America's Bosnia Policy and the co-author of Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo, to be published by Brookings Institution Press in 2000.

FULVIO V. DOBRICH is president and chief executive officer of DePfa U.S.A. Inc., a firm active in investment banking in emerging markets. As such, he has been for over a decade actively managing investments in the countries of the Balkan Region. He is also chairman of the U.S. Business Council for Southeastern Europe.

JAMES W. DYER is clerk and staff director of the House Appropriations Committee. He previously worked on legislative and intergovernmental affairs for the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, the White House, State Department, and in the private sector.

LAWRENCE S. EAGLEBURGER is senior international affairs adviser at Baker Donelson Bearman and Caldwell. He served as secretary of state during 1992 and ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1977-81.

MICHAEL EMERSON is senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels and at the London School of Economics. He formerly worked for the European Commission, including as ambassador to Moscow from 1991-96. He is the author of two recent articles, "The CEPS (Center for European Policy Studies) Plan for the Balkans" and "Redrawing the Map of Europe."

MICHAEL B. G. FROMAN is director of Strategic Development at Citigroup. During this project, he was senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and at the German Marshall Fund. Mr. Froman previously served as deputy assistant secretary and chief of staff at the Treasury Department and on the staff of the National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House.

MICHAEL D. GRANOFF is chief executive officer of Pomona Capital, an international private equity investment company with over $580 million in capital. Mr. Granoff has previously served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, as an official adviser to annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund, and as a member of the Presidential Transition Team at the Treasury Department. He was appointed by the president to the board of the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund and is a director of the American Bank of Albania.

MICHAEL HALTZEL is minority staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs and senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). Formerly chief of the European Division of the Library of Congress, he is lead Senate Democratic staffer on Balkan issues and travels frequently to the region.

GLENN HUTCHINS is founder of Silver Lake Partners, the leading private equity firm investing in technology and related growth businesses. From 1994-99, he served as the chairman of the WNIS Enterprise Fund, which was established by Congress to assist in the development of the private sector in Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. He also serves as vice chairman of CARE, the international relief and development organization.

ANDREW KENNINGHAM is senior economist with Merrill Lynch specializing in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Southeastern Europe. He lived and worked in Bulgaria, 1991-94.

HANYA MARIE KIM has spent over 11 years investing in the United States, Asia, and Europe. She is the founding partner of Intrepid International Partners, LP, an investment fund for Bulgaria and the region. She has also worked on arms control research for Paul H. Nitze and military strategy issues with the Center for Naval Analyses.

SUSAN LEVINE is managing director of JER Partners, the real estate investment arm of the J.E. Robert Companies. She previously served at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Treasury Department.

SCOTT LILLY is minority staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, responsible for managing the minority staff of the committee and recommending legislative strategies on spending to the committee Democrats and House Democratic Leadership. Previously, he served as clerk and staff director to the House Appropriations Committee, executive director of the House Democratic Study Group, and executive director of the Joint Economic Committee.

DAVID LIPTON is managing director at Moore Capital Strategy Group. He previously served as undersecretary for international affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he had extensive involvement in U.S. policy-making in the Balkan region.

WILLIAM LUERS is chairman and president of the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. He was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986-99. Before that, he served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 30 years, during which time he held many senior positions connected to central Europe and the former Soviet Union. His last assignment was as U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

MARGARET F. MUDD is a senior adviser at the Financial Services Volunteer Corps in New York, a not-for-profit organization that helps countries develop the financial infrastructure necessary to support transparent, market-oriented economies. She spent 18 years working in the international banking departments of two U.S. banks, a large part of which was devoted to financing transactions in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans.

ALAN RAPPAPORT is partner of The Beacon Group. During the past ten years, while at CIBC Oppenheimer, Mr. Rappaport has sponsored numerous investment funds focused on investing in private and public companies in the emerging markets.

STEVEN RATTNER is deputy chairman of the investment banking firm, Lazard Freres and Co. LLC.

KLAUS REGLING is managing director of Moore Capital Strategy Group, London. Previously, he worked at the German Ministry of Finance, including as director general for European and international financial relations, 1995-98, and at the International Monetary Fund.

MARIE ROBSON is a recently retired vice president of Citibank, responsible for building the Central and East European financial institutions business for the past 12 years. She is also vice chair of the U.S. Business Council for Southeastern Europe, a not-for-profit organization whose aim is to promote trade and investment in the region.

DAVID ROTHKOPF is co-founder and chairman/chief executive officer of the Newmarket Company, a Washington, DC-based provider of international information and advisory services specializing in the world's emerging markets. He is also an adjunct professor of international affairs at Columbia University and Georgetown University. Previously, he served as managing director and member of the board of Kissinger Associates, Incorporated, and as acting undersecretary of commerce for international trade, among other senior positions at the Commerce Department.

PAUL M. SACKS is president of MNS, a consulting firm focusing on a series of high-level assignments in Central Europe supporting privatization. He has been a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development privatization program in Czechoslovakia and designed and established MNS's privatization advisory and capital markets projects in Albania, Romania, Estonia, and the Newly Independent States.

ERIC SHAW is director and head of Enron's Central European business activities. He has been active in central and eastern Europe for over five years and has successfully implemented a number of business initiatives in a wide range of southeast European countries.

LAURA SILBER, visiting associate at the Remarque Institute at New York University, is co-author of the critically acclaimed Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation. She was based in former Yugoslavia for a decade, first as a Fulbright scholar then as a reporter for the Financial Times.

GEORGE SOROS is chairman of Soros Fund Management LCC. He funds a network of foundations dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and institutions of an open society.

ERNEST STERN is managing director at J.P. Morgan for senior relations with emerging market economies. He has more than 35 years’ experience in developing and transition economies. Mr. Stern served at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where his last position was assistant administrator, and then for 25 years at the World Bank, where he was chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and senior managing director, with responsibilities including eastern and central Europe.

PAUL G. YOVOVICH is a private investor and a principal of Lake Capital Management. He is also a director of a number of public and private companies, primarily in the technology and business service sectors.

BOB ZANE is senior vice president, manufacturing and sourcing for Liz Claiborne Incorporated. Liz Claiborne produces in excess of 120,000,000 apparel and accessory units annually, in contractor-owned factories throughout the world.

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