Bernard Kouchner

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 extreme left in 1960s. As a young communist and medical student in France, he railed against American imperialism and French colonialism in Algeria, and marched along front lines during 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 Socialists. He had long been a critic of party, not just because of French left's predictable and monotonous anti- Americanism, but for its unwillingness to adapt to modern economic realities. Although Kouchner has said that post of foreign minister was only one he would have accepted, his decision to join Prime Minister Francois Fillon's cabinet infuriated Socialists' chair Francois Hollande, who promptly booted Kouchner from 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 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 field of humanitarian aid and 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 magnificent headquarters of foreign ministry, located along Quai d'Orsay. can't stand 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 very few French politicians to back 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 unsuccessful weapons of mass destruction theory. While White House ignored Jacques Chirac and his foreign ministers after 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 harshest critics of US plan for Iraq, would be returning to 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 new minister came without an axe to grind stateside. But he is hardly a sycophant, insisting that he is at odds with Bush administration negotiating with Hamas and Hezbollah, and condemning failures of Washington's Iraq strategy. Never one to mince words, in March Kouchner told 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 prestigious Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (better known as Sciences Po/1 or Ecole Nationale d'Administration, 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

Political science · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Philosophy