Ambassador

Ambassador           Victor Jackovich

Victor Jackovich
                                                               
Ambassador Victor Jackovich served as the Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia from 1995 to 1998. 

Ambassador Jackovich is President of Jackovich International, a Washington-based consulting firm providing guidance to U.S. and European businesses engaged in the promotion and sale of defense and other products.  He is retained by Ervin Technical Associates as Vice President of International Relations.  Together, the two companies represent major U.S. defense contractors and other entities.  He retired from United States government service in 2004 after 33 years, including 13 years at the rank of Ambassador.

In 2005, Ambassador Jackovich accepted an invitation to become Senior Associate at the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.  He currently also serves as U.S. representative on the European Union’s Business Advisory Council for Southeast Europe, and as a Member of the Board of Trustees of a northern Italian and Central European business and policy association.

Following the September 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, Ambassador Jackovich was tapped as the U.S. government’s Senior Political Advisor for U.S. Military Operations in Afghanistan.  In this capacity, during 2002 and 2003 he provided policy direction and recommendations to U.S. and coalition military, security and counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.  He helped conceive and implement Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), the innovative post-conflict concept of combining combat and stability operations, a mechanism that was later adopted in Iraq.  He played a key role in the founding of the Tripartite Commission, a high-level gathering of American, Afghan and Pakistani military and government officials developing policies on cross-border terrorism, and served as U.S. representative in the Commission.

From 1999 to 2002, Ambassador Jackovich was Associate Director of the George Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany, the Department of Defense’s premier training institute for military and political leaderships in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.  Prior to this, Ambassador Jackovich headed up a variety of U.S. government initiatives dealing with Eastern Europe, including the Department of State’s Office of Southeast European Initiatives.  In 1998 and 1999, he led the U.S. delegation to the Royaumont Process, linking U.S., European and other international efforts in Southeast Europe.

Throughout his government service, Ambassador Jackovich specialized in launching new operations and leading them through their formative years.  During the warfare in the Balkans, he successfully opened the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia (1994) and spent the conflict years in Bosnia as the U.S. Ambassador negotiating with the warring factions on behalf of U.S. objectives (1992-95).  He organized the establishment of USG operations in Slovenia (1995), paving the way for that country’s later entry into NATO and the European Union.  During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he headed the first U.S. representation to the independent state of Moldova (1992).   He was Director of the Department of State’s Task Force on the Balkan crisis (1990-91) and led U.S. delegations to international conferences on the Balkans in Geneva and elsewhere (1992-93).

Other international assignments included:  Moscow, Russia (1988-1990);  Sofia, Bulgaria (1991);  Nairobi, Kenya (1983-1986);  Bucharest, Romania (1980-1983);  and, Kiev, Ukraine (1979-1980).

Among his many awards are the U.S. government’s Distinguished Presidential Award (1994) for diplomatic service and the American Bar Association’s Max Kampelman Award (1998) for “advancing the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.”  In addition, he holds the Golden Eagle Award (1995), conferred by the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Serb Civic Society Award (1999); and, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award (2003), conferred by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for “policy guidance provided and special programs designed for the U.S. European Command – EUCOM – in order to accelerate integration of new democracies of Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union into NATO and Euro-Atlantic associations.”  He specialized in Russia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and maintains fluency in several languages. 

Ambassador Jackovich was born on April 24, 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa.  He graduated from Indiana University and attained an M.A. in 1971.  Ambassador Jackovich is married to Deborah Jones, a U.S. diplomat, and has one son, Jacob.