Meet Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's special representative to Afghanistan, Pakistan

President Barack Obama named former Richard Holbrooke as special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan on Thursday.

He is "one of the most talented diplomats of his generation," Obama said of him during a press conference at the State Department.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are now the "central front" in the war on terrorism, Obama declared.

"There, as in the Middle East, we must understand that we cannot deal withour problems in isolation," Obama said.

"Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well," said Holbrooke during the press conference.

Architect of the 1995 Dayton accords which ended the war in Bosnia, the 67-year-old diplomat was a top foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton during her bid for the Presidency. He was also critical of the Bush administration regarding it's policy towards Pakistan's tribal areas, and felt it had failed in Afghanistan.

By MICHAEL SHERIDAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Holbrooke has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize seven times.