(2019-0911-F Segment 1) Louis Sell and Yugoslavia

3 folders, approximately 27 pages

This collection contains records regarding Louis Sell and the former Yugoslavia from 1993 to 2001. A career foreign service officer, Mr. Sell served in a variety of European postings that dealt directly with the conflicts in the Balkans, including as a political advisor to High Representative for Bosnian Peace Implementation Carl Bildt. The records in this collection consist of emails regarding the escalating conflicts that were sent to or mention Mr. Sell.

The materials in FOIA 2019-0911-F Segment 1 are a selective body of documents responsive to the topic of the FOIA. Researchers should consult the archivist about related material. This collection contains records regarding Louis Sell pertaining to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia between 1993 and 2001. Mr. Sell was a State Department Foreign Service Officer from 1971 to 1998. He was a representative to the Joint Consultative Group, Director of the Office of Russian and Eurasian Analysis, Director of the Office of US-Soviet Bilateral Relations, and Special Assistant and Executive Secretary of the American delagation to the Strategic Arms Reductions Talks. He also served for six years at the American Embassy in Moscow, followed by eight years at postings in the former Yugoslavia. From 1995 to 1996, he was a political advisor to the High Representative for Bosnian Peace Implementation, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. In 2000, he served as Kosovo Director of the International Crisis Group, and eventually helped found the American University in Kosovo in 2003. He went on to publish two books: Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (Duke University Press, 2002) and From Washington to Moscow: US-Soviet Relations and the Collapse of the USSR (Duke University Press, 2016). Mr. Sell has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. The records responsive to this collection consist of emails regarding conflicts in the former Yugoslavia that were sent to or mention Mr. Sell. Many of the records related to this FOIA case are closed for national security reasons.

Electronic Records

Records that are responsive to this FOIA request were found in these collection areas— Clinton Presidential Records: ARMS Emails and Clinton Presidential Records: NSC Cable, Email, and Records Management Systems. The Automated Records Management System (ARMS) was a database that contained email records of the Executive Office of the President. This system held, and allowed access to, unclassified Presidential email. The ARMS database was comprised of seven sub-series of email records called "buckets." The buckets generally represented a specific White House office. The buckets were titled: NPR for National Performance Review, NSC for National Security Council, OPD for Office of Policy Development, POTUS for President of the United States, WHO for White House Office, CEA for Council of Economic Advisers, and Default for emails not associated with an office. In 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration transferred the majority of Clinton ARMS and TRP records to a records management and access system called ERA. This changed the processing of ARMS and TRP records. For technical reasons, however, NSC emails remained in their own bucket. NSC ARMS emails are arranged by topic, there-under by bucket, and there-under chronologically by creation date.

Collection is open to all researchers. Access to Clinton Presidential Records is governed by the Presidential Records Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22, as amended) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552, as amended) and therefore records may be restricted in whole or in part in accordance with legal exemptions.

Official records of William Jefferson Clinton’s presidency are housed at the Clinton Presidential Library and administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) under the provisions of the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

Staff Archivist, 2022. Previously restricted materials are added as they are released.

The following is a list of documents and folders processed in response to FOIA 2019-0911-F Segment 1:
Box 1
Clinton Presidential Records: Automated Records Management System [Email]
NSC [OA/ID 1200000]
[Louis Sell…]
[10/17/1996 – 03/30/1999]
Clinton Presidential Records: NSC Cable, Email, and Records Management System
NSC Cables
Jan 1995-Dec 1996 [OA/ID 510000]
[Louis Sell…]
[10/05/1995]
NSC Email
MsMail-Record (Sept 94-Sept 97) [OA/ID 590000]
[Louis Sell…]
[10/05/1995]