by Richard Gowan | Apr 26, 2008 | Conflict and security, Europe and Central Asia
The UN Mission in Kosovo is starting to look like that tedious guest at the end of your dinner party that just won’t leave. Except, in this case, the guest also happens to be your landlord. With the Security Council deadlocked, Kosovo is still subject to its Resolution 1244 of 1999 – and according to 1244, the Special Representative in charge of UNMIK is still the ultimate civilian authority in the province. But since the Kosovo Albanian government declared independence in February, pushing the Serb minority that lives in the northern hills to declare a counter-secession, the poor old UN has been stuck. The Albanians want to be free. The Serbs want to be part of Serbia. Nobody wants the UN in charge. But guess what, it is. At least in theory.
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by Daniel Korski | Apr 26, 2008 | Europe and Central Asia, Influence and networks
For three weeks, Europe’s “big men” have been polishing off their CVs in the hope of getting one of the new top EU jobs to be created if the Lisbon Treaty comes into force. They all want to be at the other end of the phone when the U.S wants speak to Europe, as Henry Kissinger said he wanted to.There’s the new permanent President of the European Council, the old job heading up the European Commission, the new EU Foreign Minister (alright, “High Representative”) and the lesser-know slot of Mr. Euro i.e. the chair of ECOFIN. Add to this the President of the European Parliament, the head of the ECB and – outside the EU – NATO secretary-general, which also comes up in 2009.Not all the jobs are connected. Some, like the EU Foreign Minister, have to be decided on in January. Others, like the President of the European Parliament and the Commission President, will depend on the 2009 parliamentary elections held later in 2009. Jean Claude Trichet, the French banker in charge of the ECB, is going nowhere. But having a Frenchman in the post will make it more difficult for Paris to get other slots.
You still with me? Then there’s the politics. EU elections in late 2009 will be key, as the European Parliament has a say on some of the slots. Right now, the centre-right EPP holds power and last time pushed to install current European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in 2005. But a swing to the left, will impact choices.
Politics in the EU-27 also matters. Right now, the return of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi would seem to favour centre-right candidates, yet Poland’s new centre-left government may counterbalance this. But the centre/left divide is not always a useful guide; right-wing Nicola Sarkozy has publicly backed New Labour’s Tony Blair. In the EU context, the federal/intergovernmental is important.
Have I lost you? Good. So with all this, who’s in the running?
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by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2008 | Global system, Off topic
David Miliband writes:
My visit this week to Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq was punctuated with people describing their links to Britain. One conversation particularly sticks in the memory.
I was told by someone that they had great affection for British education. “I studied at Eton, Oxford, Nottingham and London universities”. I congratulated him and said I would not hold his Eton past against him.
He replied: “Why, did you go to Harrow?”.
by Alex Evans | Apr 26, 2008 | Cooperation and coherence, Influence and networks, UK
For English policy wonks walking along Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC, the experience is invariably bittersweet. On one hand, they are (they must admit) slightly awed by the concentration of great engines of think tankery within a stone’s throw of where they stand: Brookings, the Carnegie Endowment, SAIS, CFR and plenty more besides.
But then their hearts sink slightly as they remember what the London think tank scene looks like. True, there are a couple of places – like Chatham House and IISS – that have impressive HQs and large staffs. But they’re the exception rather than the rule. Much more the norm – particularly where think tanks focused mainly on domestic policy are concerned – is a couple of cramped rooms with dated computer equipment, fraying carpet, perhaps a slightly musty smell in the air.
How to explain the difference? I was debating this with a British government official earlier this week, and the answer we both arrived at is Northcote-Trevelyan: the seminal report of 1854 that introduced the idea of a permanent, unified and politically neutral civil service.
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