Envoys galore

by | Feb 10, 2009 | Conflict and security, Cooperation and coherence, UK

For many years, the US has influenced UK national security thinking and vice versa. The 1947 National Security Act, pushed through by Harry Truman, was in many ways an attempt at copying the British system of government, which US policy-makers and commanders had come to admire during the years of close US-UK collaboration during WWII.

Later on, the influence tended to move the other way. The 1986 Goldwater-Nicols Act, which put the “joint” into the Pentagon, had as profound an effect on UK military organisation as the general staff system originally employed in Napoleon’s Grande Armée.

But whereas previously the ideas were studied and adapted to the UK’s constitutional set-up, today it seems anything invented in the US should be imported wholesale to the UK, regardless of whether it fits the political, legal and constitutional set-up or not.

So Richard Holbroke’s appointment as President Obama’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan has now been matched by the choice of Sherard Cowper-Coles as the Foreign Secretary’s Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. This adds to Jack McConnell’s role as Special Envoy for Conflict Resolution and what is rumoured to be Des Browne’s imminent appointment as the Prime Minster’s envoy to Sri Lanka. (more…)

How to look good on top of a tank

by | Feb 7, 2009 | Conflict and security, North America, Off topic, UK

In January, I reproduced a fine picture of Nicolas Sarkozy atop a French tank in Lebanon. Today, the NYT opens a profile of new U.S. Afghanistan-Pakistan envoy Richard Holbrooke thus:

Stashed in a drawer in his Manhattan apartment between snapshots of family vacations, a photograph shows Richard C. Holbrooke on a private visit to Afghanistan in 2006. He is mugging atop an abandoned Russian tank, flashing a sardonic V-for-victory sign and his best Nixon-style grin. The pose is a little like Mr. Holbrooke himself: looming, theatrical, passionate, indignant.

Three years later, he has inherited responsibility for the terrain he surveyed from that tank.

Now, it is fair to say that neither M. Sarkozy nor Mr. Holbrooke are scared of having their image scrutinized in the public domain. So we offer the readers the chance to compare and contrast their tank-top appearances:

Holbrooke has the edge here: (i) he has made sure that he is seen from below, accentuating his height; (ii) he is dressed for action, whereas President Sarkozy is just a little too dapper; (iii) he is surrounded by people who look like the better-dressed postgrads in a philosophy seminar, but we assume are fearless warriors.

Still, both our subjects do way better than an earlier generation of tank-top politicians.

I give you Thatcher…

Thatcher tank getty

…and, of course, Dukakis (whose presidential defeat is often traced to this shot):

Facing such evidence, can anyone suggest politics is not growing more sophisticated?

AQ Khan’s website

by | Feb 6, 2009 | Conflict and security, South Asia

With AQ Khan – the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb – released from house arrest, what better day to savour some highlights from the scientist’s own website?

By their deeds and actions such persons, though not prophets, demonstrate that they are an extension of the will of the transcendental. These are the people, who are destined to make history in the elevation of nations. Such is the personality of Dr. Abdul Quadeer Khan…

It is entirely due to his efforts that the process of enrichment of Uranium was successfully completed in Pakistan… The list of his contribution and achievement is far too long to be mentioned in this short citation. He is a person imbued with the spirit of serving the cause of Pakistan and Muslim Ummah through his able researches, high acumen, intellectual robustness and unwavering devotion.

So numerous are his activities that every segment of society has praised him in different forms. He has been awarded 42 gold medals by various national institutions and organizations. He was also presented with 3 gold crowns 

He has contributed immensely to the establishment of educational and research institutes in Pakistan. These include several colleges, schools, Institutes and academies. So wide are the applications of his activities that his contributions extend to the construction of 11 mosques, 1 tomb, a number of dispensaries and community health centers…

It is rare that a person in single life time accomplishes so much. This is done only by men who are endowed with special abilities by God and who prepare themselves through hard work and devotion to fulfill the mission of serving mankind.

Never before have greatness and modesty mingled to such effect, say I.