Afstan: Lord High Paddy Ashdown

The UN's new man for Afghanistan:

Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon is to be the new United Nations “super-envoy” in Afghanistan, charged with overhauling the reconstruction of the country at a time of low morale and increasing attacks by the Taleban.

UN sources in New York confirmed the appointment yesterday evening, although an official announcement was delayed as Lord Ashdown bargained for more power.

He is expected to be charged with coordinating the Western reconstruction and aid effort, pulling together international agencies, foreign donors, the Afghan Government and Nato military forces.

The task is unlikely to be easy, as much of the effort is duplicated, ineffective and short-term, while ordinary Afghans are increasingly angry that they are seeing so little of the billions of pounds that have been donated to the country...

Lord Ashdown certainly has no rosy appreciation of the situation in Afstan. A powerful Grand Poobah is indeed direly needed; but I wonder what Canadians will think of these views of his--with which I agree:

For a UN appointee, he is especially harsh on the organization's approach to nation-building. He says that the UN is a very poor manager of military and executive action, and that it functions far better as a subcontractor of national forces and a "legitimizer of international action [emphasis added--exactly the UN vis-à-vis ISAF in Afghanistan; how will Prof. Byers respond to this heresy?] ." And its values, he says, are far too heavily devoted to democracy at any cost.

"There is this bizarre idea that the one thing these people are dying for is gender-sensitivity training, human rights in our model and our systems of government," he said. "These guys want something much more simple than that. Look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They want security. Actually, I think democracy is what people choose when they have enough prosperity that they want a system of government that will protect it. The big thing about democracy is not that it's efficient, but that it's the best means of protecting what you have. I think you let them choose what pace they want to do it."..

Good luck, Paddy.