Seven Questions: Britain’s Blogging Ambassador

British Embassy, AfghanistanMan on the spot: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

Foreign Policy: Can you tell us a little bit about how the blog came about? Was there a directive from the Foreign Office, or is this your own initiative?

Sherard Cowper-Coles: It was a suggestion from the new foreign secretary, David Miliband, who had his own blog when he was secretary of state for the environment. As foreign secretary, he felt that we needed to open up foreign policy and show people what diplomats really did.

FP: Do you get many e-mails or comments from readers?

SC: A few, yes. Quite a few comments from readers and quite a lot of interest. Its growing all the time as knowledge of it spreads around the blogosphere. Some of them are constructive and interested in our policy in Afghanistan. The worst so far was about the clip of the embassy security officer and the head of our aid operation and the head of our counter-drug team and me dancing with our Gurkhas. That was in a parody of a British television program [Strictly Come Dancing], described as Strictly Come Mincing. Luckily that comment hasnt been put up on the site.

FP: With the Foreign Office blogging and now the U.S. State Department as well, do you think that this is the beginning of a trend in how diplomats interact with the public? Or is it more of an aberration?

SC: No, I dont think its an aberration. I think its a wonderful way to communicate, but its been quite onerous. The original plan was for me to do it for a month and then someone else would take over. Theyve now asked me to extend it for a bit, but it does take up a lot of time. Its a bit of a preoccupation having to carry a camera around and send it down our often-not-very-reliable broadband connection here, but equally Ive enjoyed it. I feel in a way that Im writing to myself.

FP: Afghanistan is not your first diplomatically tricky posting; youve been the British ambassador in Israel and Saudi Arabia. What makes Afghanistan different from those?

SC: Well, the big difference is that were in the business of rebuilding a state shattered by nearly 30 years of war. We have 8,000 troops here, and this is, or shortly will be, the largest bilateral British embassy in the world, with 128 UK-based diplomatic staff. So this is big, and its serious, and we are involved in military operations here in a way that we obviously werent in either Israel or Saudi Arabia.

Islam is very important in Afghanistan, and being able to read the Arabic alphabet has helped me learn Pashto and to be able to understand a bit of Dari, the other language here. But while Islam is central to this society, its a different sort of Islam from that in Saudi Arabia. Its a different sub-brand as it were. Afghanistan also has a secular tradition, for example, a history of communism, which doesnt exist at all in Saudi Arabia, or at least not in any significant way.

FP: Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the worlds opiates, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That sounds like a dramatic failure for drug control policy in that country. Is it time to try a different strategy? Spray eradication? Legalization?

SC: No. We take our lead from the government of Afghanistan, but we dont believe aerial spraying is sensible. We think it would risk turning an insurgency into an insurrection in certain parts of the country, and it wouldnt help us win hearts and minds. We believe in targeted eradication. We believe in making clear to individuals who are prominent in the insurgency and prominent in drug cultivation that the risks for them of being involved in this dreadful trade are rising. But we also believe in a number of other therapies: in interdiction, in information operations, in offering alternative livelihoods in terms of institution building in the countryside. This isnt going to be solved simply or quickly. The experience in Turkey, Pakistan, and Thailand shows that it takes at least a decade, and probably closer to a couple of decades, to squeeze opium out of the society.

FP: Do you envision the Taliban eventually having a place in the Afghan government, as President Hamid Karzai has called for?

SC: If they are prepared to accept the Afghan Constitution and lay down their arms, there is a place for them in government. Thats already clear from the reconciliation program run by the government of Afghanistan and supported by the United Kingdom and the United States. There are already 4,000 former Taliban fighters whove come over through the reconciliation program, and there are a number of former Taliban ministers around Kabul living perfectly normal lives as members of this society.

FP: Has it been possible for you to talk to any Afghans who are hostile to the foreign presence there or are sympathetic to the insurgency?

SC: Yes, I have spoken with them. The Afghan people have endorsed our presence through electionswell not directly, there hasnt been a referendum on the foreign presence herebut through their support for the Karzai government and repeated opinion polls and through the relevant U.N. resolutions. I dont feel any doubt about the legitimacy of our presence here. And I think most Afghans know that if we went, there would be a real risk of a return to the dark days of war.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles is Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan.

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