Ashdown headed to Kabul as "super-envoy"?

According to new reports, Paddy Ashdown, the former EU-UN High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been offered a newly created position in Kabul as a "super envoy" that would head Afghanistan efforts by NATO, the UN, and perhaps the EU as well.

According to a NATO diplomat quoted yesterday in the Financial Times, “Ashdown’s name seems to be the only one in play. I understand that Karzai is comfortable with that and it seems as if the ball is now in Ashdown’s court.” Other names floated for the position have included Joschka Fischer and Hikmet Cetin, former foreign ministers of Germany and Turkey.

Ashdown's name has been bandied about since June, but he was reluctant to consider the job unless he had the endorsement of the United States. Then recently the dual-hatted position was championed by Nicholas Burns, the number three man in the US State Dept. There remains disagreement over the nature of the role, according to Karzai spokesman Hamayun Hamidzada, who notes in The Scotsman that "Britain wants a Kabul-based envoy, who would co-ordinate people here, and also in the capitals. The US thinks you need a roving envoy going from capital to capital." 

Will Ashdown accept? In June, he said there was the need for such a post:  "My view, for what it is worth, is that there needs to be a single figure out there pulling all the strands together. At the moment there is little or no co-ordination and the country is starting to work against itself." 

The change could greatly improve coordination and elevate the status of the UN in Afghanistan. It would require a tremendously skilled  manager and coordinator to make it all work -- something Ashdown was able to do quite well in Bosnia. In a WSJ op-ed last month, Hans Binnendijk argued that "a new, high-profile European High Representative under U.N. auspices should be appointed to pull together the diverse national contributions in Afghanistan and to coordinate military and economic approaches into a comprehensive and coherent whole. Paddy Ashdown provides a good example with his work in Bosnia. Such a High Representative could also help convince European publics to stick with the Afghan effort." The challenge will be coordinating with the US and with the Afghan government, which as a sovereign state would never grant Ashdown the level of authority he had in Bosnia.

Photo: Paddy Ashdown (aka Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon...) 

Here's a clip from the FT piece:

Ashdown lined up as Afghan super-envoy, By Jon Boone in Kabul and Daniel Dombey in Washington: The departure of the two men creates the opportunity for a new “double-hatted” mission – allowing an envoy to represent both the world body and the Atlantic alliance. A “triple-hat” plan, to include the European Union, has also been discussed, but not yet agreed on.

Washington and London back the idea of a joint UN-Nato envoy. However, the specifics of the job, which does not involve working on military operations but would involve reporting to both Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, and Nato’s governing North Atlantic Council, could be a factor deterring Lord Ashdown, the former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrat party.

In Bosnia, he had almost vice-regal powers, allowing him to overrule the country’s government...The Afghan government sees the new envoy’s role as providing a focal point for an international community that often sends out mixed messages. “We will not let anyone compromise our sovereignty,” said Mr Hamidzada said. “But if this person can bring co-ordination, coherent messages and bridge the Atlantic gap then that would be super.”

Persuading the different countries supporting the military effort in Afghanistan to sing from the same hymn sheet is likely to be difficult, considering the disagreements on key policy areas, such as counter-narcotics

For example, the UK, the lead nation on combating drugs, has strongly opposed US pressure for greater eradication of Afghanistan’s booming poppy fields.

Lord Ashdown has previously called for a strong international figure to be put in charge of efforts in Afghanistan, and he was reportedly offered such a job in July by Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister.

Last month he told Reuters news agency that Nato-led forces had lost in Afghanistan and that “success is now unlikely”. In the interview, he said: “Unless somebody has the power genuinely to co-ordinate and unify the international approach, we will lose and I think that is happening.” ...