Word: kouchner
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From Médecins Sans Frontières to his stands on Iraq and Darfur, Kouchner's driving principle has been what he calls "the right to intervene." It's the idea that governments and nongovernmental organizations cannot let another country's sovereignty stop them from fighting injustice. "You cannot offer humanitarian help and then it's over, like a Good Samaritan," he says. Now that he's Foreign Minister, some French aid organizations worry that he may try to deploy French troops to bolster relief efforts. That, they argue, could strip humanitarian groups of their role as impartial actors...
...position on Iraq revealed a characteristic determination to stick to his convictions regardless of the political pressure bearing down on him. "He rattles people's cages," says Holbrooke. "It is what he has always done." And he has paid a price. When Socialist leader François Hollande dismissed Kouchner from the party for joining Sarkozy's Cabinet, Kouchner admits he was hurt. But he's convinced the party needs a drastic overhaul that "will take years." Nearing retirement, he was unwilling to wait that long...
...France, some commentators are openly wondering whether Kouchner will last long as Foreign Minister. They question how much real policymaking power he will actually wield, pointing to signs that Sarkozy is intending to strengthen presidential control over foreign affairs rather than delegate more of it away. It was Sarkozy, not Kouchner, for example, who delivered the opening remarks at the Foreign Ministers' summit on Darfur on June 25. And Sarkozy has brought Jean-David Levitte, the respected former French ambassador to Washington, back to Paris to be his national security adviser, based in the Elysée Palace. Kouchner also...
...meantime, Kouchner has hardly been relegated to the sidelines. In early June, he convinced Chad's President, Lieut. General Idriss Deby, to allow a French military airdrop of relief supplies to refugees who had fled there from Darfur. On his trip to Khartoum, he also helped convince Sudan's General Bashir to accept some U.N. troops in Darfur. A week later, Kouchner joined Sarkozy in Brussels for an all-night blizzard of lobbying over the new E.U. treaty. One day later, he dined in his office with Condoleezza Rice, on her official first visit to see him. Gushing enthusiastically...
Choosing Darfur as his first major initiative was perhaps inevitable for Kouchner, who remains at heart a humanitarian activist. Although his Darfur summit failed to soften China, which resolutely opposes sanctions on Sudan, or to settle which foreign troops would be sent there, the tragedy in that region had clearly been given top priority by France, thanks in large part to its new Foreign Minister. In Khartoum, even Bashir - not known for his humor - appeared charmed by his French visitor. Like many African leaders, Bashir has known Kouchner for decades, since the Frenchman's days at MSF. In an anteroom...