A Paddy to help Hamid?
STR/AFP Is Afghanistan about to get a dose of international trusteeship? Rumors are swirling in the British press that Paddy Ashdown, former commando, veteran Liberal Democrat, and until recently international overseer in Bosnia, may be tapped for a similar job in Afghanistan. Ashdown vigorously denies the rumor. I interviewed Ashdown in Bosnia just before he ...
STR/AFP
Is Afghanistan about to get a dose of international trusteeship?
Rumors are swirling in the British press that Paddy Ashdown, former commando, veteran Liberal Democrat, and until recently international overseer in Bosnia, may be tapped for a similar job in Afghanistan. Ashdown vigorously denies the rumor.
I interviewed Ashdown in Bosnia just before he left his post; he’s certainly forceful and capable—and he might just be able to bring some order to a reconstruction and political effort that has often drifted. Many Bosnian politicians found him overbearing, but a firm hand may be what’s needed to bolster Hamid Karzai’s stumbling central government.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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