| Now that he's leaving, Reuters finds some nice things to say about Darth Bolton. Skilled, effective, fair. Grrr. |
"He is serious about the American objectives here in reforming the United Nations, and he pushed hard," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters. "But of course sometimes in order to achieve the objective you have to work together with others."
"His style is different. He is hard-working," Wang said. "He knows the job."
Bolton also had difficulties with European ambassadors, who should have been his closest allies. But he worked intensively with France on a ceasefire resolution, 1701, to halt the Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon this summer. "I would say we have always respected each other and we were able to work together, especially on 1701," said France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere
Unable to overcome Democratic opposition in the Senate to his nomination, the White House announced on Monday that Bolton would resign when his temporary appointment expires within weeks. Bolton's recess appointment last year had allowed him to bypass the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Democrats accused him of being a bully and of pressuring subordinates to align their views with his.
| Subordinates are s'posed to support their boss...in this case, POTUS. |
"It is to me really disappointing to see Ambassador Bolton go," said Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima. "He has been an exceptionally skillful diplomat at the United Nations at a time when it faced very challenging issues like reform."
"In the Security Council John Bolton was spearheading a number of important issues," Oshima said, singling out a resolution to rein in North Korea's nuclear program, where "he really spearheaded this effort to get a Security Council resolution adopted in a very speedy manner."
LESS SUCCESS WITH U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Several diplomats distinguish between Bolton's work in the 15-nation Security Council and that in the 192-member General Assembly, dominated by developing nations.
"In some ways, he seems to have been more an ambassador to the Security Council than to the United Nations as a whole and I think he has done very well there," said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor and U.N. expert.
But the problem, Luck said, is his actions in the General Assembly, which is increasingly polarized between developing and developed countries over changes to U.N. management practices, finances and a new human rights body.
"He is very good on preaching on reform but not good at doing it" raising the question of "whether he wants to strengthen it or find excuses for abandoning it," said Luck.
Greece's U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, said the United States was correct in the need for reform but "I might say that I personally would pursue the same thing through different tactics, but that is a different story."
But there was no love lost between the U.N. bureaucracy and Bolton, especially the U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton, who said in a June speech that the United States worked closely with the world body in many fields but tolerated "too much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping." In response Bolton called on Secretary General Kofi Annan to repudiate Malloch Brown "personally and publicly," but Annan stood by the "thrust" of the speech, his spokesman said.