LONDON--President Bill Clinton nominated former Harvard Vice President John F. T. Shattuck as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic--a role that will become more tightly defined in the next year as the six-year-old country seeks to gain admission to NATO and its government struggles to overcome instability.

Shattuck's nomination, announced during Clinton's recent trip to China, is now contingent on Senate approval. The 100-member body will hold hearings to examine Shattuck's qualifications and then vote on whether to name him ambassador. State Department officials said the process would probably take a couple of weeks and that, until he is confirmed, he is not permitted to speak with the press.

Shattuck served as vice president for government, community and public affairs--one of Harvard's five vice presidents--from 1984 to 1993, representing the University before the U.S. Massachusetts and Cambridge governments. Since 1993, he has been assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor--one of 19 assistant secretaries working for Madeleine K. Albright.

As the U.S. government appoints new representatives to the Czech Republic, the eastern European country's own parliamentary-style government remains shaken after elections last month. The previous government led by the Civic Democratic Party (CDP) collapsed in June, prompting emergency elections for a new prime minister and for representatives to one of the houses of parliament.

While the CDP's rivals, the Social Democrats, won the most seats, none of the political parties achieved a majority, which means no group has full control of the government.

The country's President Vaclav Havel, who is elected separately, has recently criticized the two most powerful parties, the Social Democrats and the CDP. He called their leaders' plan to share power--with one serving as prime minister and one heading the parliament-unconstitutional.

But Havel, president since 1993 and leader of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ousted the communist party, is losing popularity in the media. His health is also declining, and he will undergo abdominal surgery on July 23.

Shattuck's has worked largely in areas of political and social instability. He has participated in diplomatic missions to forty countries, including the Czech Republic. His support for human rights has led him to Bosnia, Rwanda and many other wartorn countries.

As assistant secretary of state, he helped to negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia. He acted as U.S. human rights envoy to Bosnia in 1995 to investigate crimes against humanity. Shattuck was also a key player in establishing the international criminal tribunals for investigating the brutal killing in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

In August 1997, Shattuck wrote an article for The Christian Science Monitor that emphasized the importance of punishing those in Rwanda guilty of committing atrocities.

"The most important long-term element of this strategy is justice," he wrote in the article. "Unless those responsible for the Rwandan genocide are held accountable for their crimes against humanity the spiral of violence and impunity may continue...the international community must unite to end the crisis."

Before assuming his vice presidency at Harvard, Shattuck served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union and taught human rights law at Harvard Law School.

Although he spent much of his career in Cambridge, Shattuck received his Bachelor of Arts and his law degree from Yale University.

Shattuck is married to Ellen Hume, a journalist and teacher, and they have four children.