-Caveat Lector-
The presiding Secretary-General is leaving NATO to become the European
Union's first minister of defense.
New NATO Secretary-General Sought
By JEFFREY ULBRICH
.c The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Wanted: Secretary-General for NATO. Must be
political heavyweight. An excellent communicator. And an effective manager.
Must not be from the United States, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Poland,
Hungary or the Czech Republic.
NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana - a Spaniard who won the war in Kosovo,
moved the Western military alliance into a new era of enlargement and
drastically revamped its strategy - is leaving to become the European Union's
first coordinator for foreign and defense policy.
Filling his shoes will be no easy task.
``People are writing richly speculative articles,'' said one NATO ambassador,
insisting that ``the position at the moment is that there are no formal
candidates.''
The ambassador, like everyone else at the 19-nation alliance's headquarters
who was asked about the search for Solana's successor, declined to speak on
the record.
The lack of formal candidates leaves NATO observers little to work with
beyond a handful of ``names being mentioned.''
So far, there are only four. The most prominent is German Defense Minister
Rudolf Scharping. He certainly wins the highest praise, but his boss, German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, says he needs the 51-year-old Scharping at
home.
Others include Paddy Ashdown, 58, the departing leader of Britain's Liberal
Democratic Party; former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, 58, and
Hans Haekkerup, 53, Denmark's defense minister.
Selecting a new secretary-general, like everything else at NATO, is done by
consensus. The dean of the NATO ambassadors, Sir John Goulding of Britain,
has been consulting with his fellow ambassadors to see if consensus is
forming around any particular name. So far, NATO officials say, nothing has
emerged.
Solana's four-year mandate ends in December, but he is expected to leave
sometime in October to start his new job. Best guess among NATO officials is
the new man - and it will be a man - will be named in September, when all
NATO foreign ministers are in New York for the U.N. General Assembly.
The new secretary-general must be a politician with clout, somebody who can
forge consensus when things get tough, said one NATO official. He must be
able to explain effectively the alliance strategy in tough spots like Kosovo.
And he must be able to manage a large bureaucracy.
There are limitations.
By tradition, he can't be an American because the United States already holds
the top two military jobs in the alliance. He can't be French, because France
still has not rejoined the integrated military command, which it left in 1966
when President Charles de Gaulle became upset over American influence.
Italy already has a deputy secretary-general and it's too soon to have
another Spaniard. Somebody from the three new members - Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic - would probably rile the Russians.
Some people at NATO still believe Scharping could fall on his domestic
political sword in the end and take the NATO job for the good of the
alliance. Others think not.
Most write off Dehaene as a nonstarter. Solana's predecessor, Willy Claes,
also a Belgian, was forced to resign because of a political scandal back
home. The voters just kicked Dehaene and his party out of office, in large
part due to other scandals.
Ashdown, though attractive in some ways, has never held a Cabinet post or a
high government job. He does, however, have significant military experience,
something Solana - an anti-NATO peacenik in his youth - never had.
Haekkerup is the least known of all but has solid experience.
``It's unfortunate there is such a poor list,'' said Gordon Adams of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. ``Solana is a hell
of an act to follow. He has been a superb secretary-general.''
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