president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a mil-
itary coup within eight months of being elected.
Christopher helped negotiate Aristide’s return to
office, and the United States participated in a U.N.
peacekeeping effort, Operation Uphold Democ-
racy. U.S. troops remained in Haiti until 2000;
Aristide proved to be an ineffectual leader, and his
elected successor also made little progress in the
poverty-stricken nation.
Christopher stepped forward to negotiate a truce
to the vicious war involving Bosnians, Croats, and
Serbs in the newly independent Bosnia and Herzego-
vina. After bloody massacres, deliberate shelling of ci-
vilians, and allegations of genocide, the United States
and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion (NATO) stepped in with Operation Deliberate
Force to halt the violence. Christopher’s State De-
partment hosted a peace conference at secluded
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio,
in November, 1995. The site was carefully chosen to
prevent any one party at the talks from grandstanding
or taking its case to the press. Skillful negotiations set
boundaries among the entities and provided for
continued monitoring to prevent further outbreaks
of violence over yet unsettled issues. The Dayton
Accords were the signature achievement of Christo-
pher’s tenure as secretary of state.
At the end of President Clinton’s first term, Chris-
topher decided to return to private life. He was suc-
ceeded by Madeleine Albright. Christopher re-
mained active on the board of advisers of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think
tank for analyzing American interests in the Middle
East, and the advisory board of the Partnership for a
Secure America, a nonprofit that promotes biparti-
sanship on national security and foreign policy is-
sues. Christopher represented Al Gore in the
Florida recount controversy following the 2000 pres-
idential election.
Impact Christopher proved his mettle as a negotia-
tor in the turbulent 1990’s. He holds many honorary
degrees and awards, including the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, and is highly ranked among U.S.
secretaries of state.
Further Reading
Albright, Madeleine.Madame Secretar y. New York:
Hyperion, 2003.
Christopher, Warren.Chances of a Lifetime. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2001.
_______.In the Stream of Histor y: Shaping Foreign Policy
for a New Era. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1998.
Jan HallSee also Albright, Madeleine; Bosnia conflict;
China and the United States; Clinton, Bill; Dayton
Accords; Elections in the United States, 1992; For-
eign policy of the United States; Gore, Al; Haiti
intervention; King, Rodney; Kosovo conflict; Los
Angeles riots. Cirque du Soleil
Identification Modern circus troupe
Cirque du Soleil created a new eclectic entertainment me-
dium that drew the audience into a fantasy world where
anything was possible.
Cirque du Soleil was founded in 1984 by street per-
formers Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier in Baie-
Saint-Paul, Quebec, Canada. The 1980’s were a tu-
multuous period for the group, alternating between
both financial and performance success and failure.
The circus troupe also frequently changed manage-
ment and artistic direction. However, the company
stuck to the guiding principles of the modern circus,
replacing animal acts with human acrobatics as well
as drawing on circus styles from all over the world. In
1989, Franco Dragone became artistic director and
created the showNouvelle Expérience, which turned
the performance group into a profitable venture
and a worldwide success. WithNouvelle Expérience,
Dragone brought the audience into the perfor-
mance by eliminating the traditional curtain and
having the performers move the props. These inno-
vations required the performers to continuously re-
main in character. The show enjoyed a three-year
tour, 1990-1993, that included one year at the Mi-
rage Resort and Hotel in Las Vegas. In 1992, Cirque
du Soleil staged its first show with a story line,
Saltimbanco. With its message of peace and multicul-
turalism,Saltimbancowas one of the group’s most
successful shows. It continued to be performed
throughout the 1990’s and into the next century.
As Cirque du Soleil celebrated its tenth anniver-
sary, the ambiance created in its shows darkened, be-
came dreamlike, and incorporated elements of sur-
realism.Alegría(pr. 1994), the first of these shows,The Nineties in America Cirque du Soleil 183