Stygius hits a homer in his assessment of John Bolton’s immediate intentions regarding U.N. reform.
He writes:
<$NoAd$>
Not only is Bolton trying to dilute or remove effective action against AIDS, global poverty, climate change, etc. he’s trying to turn the meeting into a UN reform vehicle; more specifically, a John Bolton UN reform vehicle.
This next bit I want to make emphatically: My sense is that Bolton is not only hamstringing the development goals of the meeting, this is also an attempt by him to seize control of the US’s UN reform project from others within the State Department (namely, the Secretary of State).
Bolton needs very badly to take over and be identified with any UN reform initiative, even if it fails on his account. This requires waging battle against his political adversaries within the administration.
Secretary Rice has ostracized Bolton from the major UN reform decision-making, in part by appointing Shirin Tahir-Kheli as her own UN Reform Special Adviser. Rice’s worry is that, given Bolton’s track record, Bolton would only screw up UN reform. A reasonable probability. Hence, Shirin Tahir-Kheli.
One interesting positive Bolton story that made its way to me via a trusted source is that our Ambassador has gone out of his way to meet every one of the “facilitators” of the Millennium Summit document.
Some of these facilitators were in absolute shock that he took the time to shake hands and look each in the eye and say that he appreciates the work they do.
Watch out. I think John is studying Clinton meet and greet tapes.
