Posted on 09/12/2003 8:34:03 AM PDT by knighthawk
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hopes that a woman might at last become secretary-general of NATO were snuffed out on Thursday as Norway's defense minister pulled out of the race, leaving a Dutchman and a Canadian in the frame.
It may be too early to make a call on a selection process Washington's envoy to NATO says is as arcane as electing a pope. But diplomats said Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has a clear edge over Canadian Finance Minister John Manley.
Indeed, in announcing that she was not a candidate for the Western defense alliance's top political job, Norwegian Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold said she believed "the next secretary-general should come from the Netherlands."
Youthful, plucky and an ardent military reformer, many believed Devold was just what NATO needed. And as a woman she could have broken the alliance's stuffy all-male image.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made no secret of his admiration for her, which may have been a key handicap, tarring her with the brush of conservative U.S. hawks.
Time is running out for the 19-nation organization to reach a consensus on who should take the four-year post from Britain's George Robertson, who steps down in mid-December.
None of the handful of candidates mooted so far has electrified countries looking for a figure of stature to heal transatlantic wounds and revamp the Cold War alliance as a global force against post-September 11 security threats.
"All the names mentioned are good," said one diplomat. "But there has been no one who has made us sit up and say 'Wow!'."
BRIDGE ACROSS ATLANTIC
Another reason for the lack of consensus is that after their bitter split over the U.S.-led war in Iraq this year, different allies have been looking for a firm Atlanticist or a figure who would champion the European Union's own defense ambitions.
This transatlantic battle of wills led to a stalemate between the first two aspirants, Devold and Portugal's Antonio Vitorino, the EU's justice and home affairs commissioner.
After a meeting between Vitorino and Rumsfeld in June word soon spread at NATO's headquarters that Washington would never back him. Devold wilted amid European objections that she was inexperienced, too close to U.S. conservatives and not from an EU country.
De Hoop Scheffer could bridge the Atlantic gap since the Netherlands is one of Washington's closest European allies -- it lent political support on the Iraq war -- but is also keen on developing the EU's security and defense policy.
"The Hague has been a very important ally in NATO and we're very happy with that," U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns told the newspapers De Volkskrant and De Morgen in an interview published on Thursday, when asked about the Dutchman's chances.
Belgium, which like Paris and Berlin argued strenuously against the Iraq war, says that although it has not backed a horse yet, it is leaning toward De Hoop Scheffer.
One explanation for De Hoop Scheffer's lead is that the post of secretary-general has always gone to a European, a tradition some are loath to break -- even for a Canadian.
Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham acknowledged on Wednesday after a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell that the ball was now in Europe's court. "It's very much a question of whether there is a European consensus developing or not. At this time, it's not clear," he said.
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