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Books and Arts; Book Review;Richard Holbrooke；Bullish and bullying；
文藝；書評；理查德·霍爾布魯克；風生水起，恃強凌弱；
The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World. Edited by Derek Chollet and Samantha Power.
《不安分的美國人：理查德·霍爾布魯克世界作為記》。德里克·喬列特和薩曼莎·帕沃編輯。
Richard Holbrooke, an American diplomat known by friend and foe as a bulldozer, was accustomed to getting his way. His final assignment to fix the mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, proved more than he bargained for.
理查德·霍爾布魯克，一位美國外交官，朋友和對手都認為他是個恃強凌弱的人，他做事總是我行我素。然而，他的最后一次任務——收拾阿富汗和巴基斯坦的爛攤子——卻沒能如他所愿。
Barack Obama appointed him as his presidential envoy, but Mr Holbrooke held little authority. Senior officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who resented his abrasive personality and his relative lack of knowledge of the region, kept him at arm's length. At home, American generals and the CIA ran the show. Most debilitating, Mr Obama, whose distaste for self-promotion is well documented, treated his envoy with a coolness not unlike that shown by many of the subcontinent's leaders.
霍爾布魯克先生由巴拉克·奧巴馬指定為自己的總統特使，但手上幾乎沒有什么權力。阿富汗和巴基斯坦的高級官員都看不慣他蠻橫粗暴的性格，指責他對當地相關情況不了解，對他敬而遠之。而美國國內事務由將軍和中央情報局掌管。最削弱他意志的是，人人皆知奧巴馬先生最討厭像霍爾布魯克先生這樣毛遂自薦的人，因而總統對他的特使態度冷淡，和次大陸國家領導人常有的不冷不熱的態度沒什么兩樣。
This frustrating final post of Holbrooke's life, coupled with his failure to get the job he most coveted, secretary of state, may have been what prompted his friends to assemble an encomium in such fast order that it appears less than a year after he died. This tribute offers essays by colleagues, protégés, several journalists (a tribe on which he lavished unwavering attention), as well as his wife, Kati Marton, a former foreign correspondent. The reader is presented with mostly admiring anecdotes about Holbrooke's early days in Vietnam as a questioning foreign-service officer, his rebellious tenure as Peace Corps director in Morocco, and onwards and upwards as assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, peace negotiator for Bosnia and ambassador to the United Nations.
霍爾布魯克先生人生中最后的工作讓人提不起勁兒來，再加上他沒始終能坐上自己最想要的職位，國務卿，或許是這些原因使得他的朋友們在他去世后不到一年的時間里就為他寫好了頌詞，這本頌詞的文章作者有他生前的同事、受保護人、幾名記者（他生前堅定不移地給予關注的群體），還有他曾是一名外事通訊記者的妻子卡蒂·馬頓。讀者將會看到霍爾布魯克先生早年在越南發生的令人羨慕的奇聞異事，那時，他還是個喜歡刨根問底的駐外事務部官員；還將重溫他作為美國和平隊執行官在摩洛哥時的叛逆時光，作為東亞和太平洋地區事務助理秘書時平步青云的時代，以及作波斯尼亞和平談判員和聯合國大使時的經歷。
This all feels less complex and engaging than the man himself. More striking are Holbrooke's own writings on foreign policy. Whenever he needed to drive a point home, particularly on subjects he was in the midst of negotiating, he was quick to put pen to paper. The editors have selected some short pieces on Bosnia that stand out for their passion, and that pass the test of time.
這些都不如他本人更立體更有魅力。最令人吃驚的霍爾布魯克先生自己寫的關于外交政策方面的文章，不論什么時候，只要他認為有必要把問題講清楚，尤其是他正在談判中的問題，他會立刻用筆紙寫下來。編者遴選了他的幾篇有關波斯尼亞問題的短文，文章富有激情，經得住時間的考驗。
A stellar piece of Holbrookeiana, now 40 years old but more current than ever, is a critique of the lumbering process of foreign-policy making in Washington, DC. The endemic caution, overstaffing and endless circulation of policy papers among dozens of bureaucrats mean that presidents and secretaries of state often lack the guidance they need. “The massive foreign affairs machine built up during the post-war era rumbles on, as ornate and unwieldy as ever,” he wrote after being in the Foreign Service less than ten years. A routine cable on a humanitarian issue needed 27 clearances in Washington before being sent to the field, he discloses. The essay was passed around the state department earlier this year. It still feels accurate, say the editors of this book.
霍爾布魯克先生有一篇非常精彩的文章，寫了已經有40年了，但現在看來比以往任何時候都更具時效性，這就是對華盛頓政府制定外交政策過程拖沓的批評。一貫的過分謹慎，人員冗余，以及幾十個官僚無休止地審查政策文件，這都表示總統和國務卿常常無法得到他們所需要的指導。“二戰后建立起來的龐大的外交事務機器現在還在隆隆地緩慢運作著，和以往一樣零件過多、運作笨拙，”只在駐外事務部待了不到10年的他就這樣寫到。他披露到，一份關于人權問題的常規電報要在華盛頓經過27次檢閱才能送往外地。今年早些時候，這篇文章已分發給國務院。本書編者說，對于文章所提到的問題，現在的情況仍然是這樣。
Mr Holbrooke accomplished much. He might have done more in South Asia and, perhaps, Washington if he had understood that the bullying tactics he used to forge a peace in Bosnia did not necessarily work elsewhere. “If Richard calls and asks you for something, just say yes,” Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying. “If you say no, you'll eventually get to yes, but the journey will be very painful.” In Pakistan and Afghanistan it was hard for Mr Holbrooke to even start making calls.
霍爾布魯克先生取得了很多成就。在南亞，他本能做更多，如果他能明白自己辛苦在波斯尼亞建立和平局勢所采用的欺凌策略并不是在任何其他地方都受用的，也許他在華盛頓也會有更大作為。“如果理查德打電話來問你什么事情，只管說是，”亨利·基辛格這樣說過，“如果你說否，最終你還是要說是，只是這個過程將會非常痛苦。”在巴基斯坦和阿富汗，霍爾布魯克先生甚至還沒來得及打電話。
