Bernard Kouchner
| Autor: | Yasmeen Mohiuddin |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2008 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | International Journal: Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis. 63:743-749 |
| ISSN: | 2052-465X 0020-7020 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/002070200806300319 |
| Popis: | When Bernard Kouchner was expelled from France's Socialist party last year for accepting President Nicolas Sarkozy1 s invitation to become foreign minister, it was as if history was repeating itself.Like many of Europe's top politicians, Kouchner flirted with the extreme left in the 1960s. As a young communist and medical student in France, he railed against American imperialism and French colonialism in Algeria, and marched along the front lines during the watershed student protests of May 1968. But Kouchner never let ideology displace his tried and true principles and soon found himself unwelcome in a Communist party that supported oppressive dictatorships in Latin America and elsewhere.Almost 40 years later, Kouchner faced a similar situation with the Socialists. He had long been a critic of the party, not just because of the French left's predictable and monotonous anti- Americanism, but for its unwillingness to adapt to modern economic realities. Although Kouchner has said that the post of foreign minister was the only one he would have accepted, his decision to join Prime Minister Francois Fillon's cabinet infuriated the Socialists' chair Francois Hollande, who promptly booted Kouchner from the party.To his credit, Kouchner has never been afraid to speak his mind. That quality occasionally backfires - a notable example being his statement that France must prepare for war with Iran. Boutros Boutros- Ghali called him an "unguided missile." In France he has been labeled " gauche caviar," a French term similar to the "champagne socialist" epithet used to describe leftwingers whose lifestyles are deemed too sophisticated for their political positions. But sabre-rattling and posh tastes aside, Kouchner' s willingness to take on despotic regimes and their enablers worldwide has made him a pioneer in the field of humanitarian aid and the doctrine of humanitarian intervention, and has also saved countless lives.He championed a foreign policy based on protecting human rights long before he took office in the magnificent headquarters of the foreign ministry, located along the Quai d'Orsay. "I can't stand the fact that a man is assassinated, that a woman is abused, that a child is beaten up," Kouchner wrote in his 1995 memoir, What I Believe. This explains why he was one of the very few French politicians to back the US invasion of Iraq. His reasoning - that removing Saddam Hussein and other dictators from power was necessary to protect civilians - was at least more plausible and sincere than the unsuccessful weapons of mass destruction theory. While the White House ignored Jacques Chirac and his foreign ministers after the Iraq war, Washington has been keen to embrace Kouchner and Sarkozy as friends of America, especially after it was rumoured that ex- Socialist Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, one of the harshest critics of the US plan for Iraq, would be returning to the post.Indeed Sarkozy selected Kouchner not for his foreign policy credentials or his record of promoting human rights, but for his commitment to a strategic rapprochement with Washington. Kouchner was quickly cast as "proAmerican" by an American media grateful that the new minister came without an axe to grind stateside. But he is hardly a sycophant, insisting that he is at odds with the Bush administration over negotiating with Hamas and Hezbollah, and condemning the failures of Washington's Iraq strategy. Never one to mince words, in March Kouchner told the Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris that "the magic is over" for American foreign policy.Some commentators have attributed his forthright and blunt approach to diplomacy to his very un- French educational background. Neither he nor Sarkozy were groomed at the prestigious Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (better known as Sciences Po/1 or Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the traditional breeding ground for France's political and diplomatic elite. Chirac, Francois Mitterrand, and past foreign ministers Dominique de Villepin, Vedrine, and Alain Juppe are all alumni of one or both schools. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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