Holmes to step down: Britain loses grip on power as last top post is vacated
February 24, 2010 11:44 pm
Sir John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, has told The
Times that he plans to step down later this year in a move that could leave
Sir John, now co-ordinating the international response to
the
The Times has learnt, however, that he is to take over as
director of the Ditchley Foundation, which runs international affairs
conferences at the picturesque
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the foundation’s current head and a
former British Ambassador to
As in the European Union, top posts at the UN are an important symbol of national prestige. Although the UN is supposed to be run by a neutral international civil service, the top jobs have always been shared out between the various power blocs in the 192-nation organisation.
All five veto-bearing powers —
Britain’s influence has diminished since the arrival of Ban Ki Moon, a former South Korean Foreign Minister who became UN Secretary-General in 2007 after a deal between the US and China.
Under Mr Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian,
Sir John is now the only Briton left with the rank of under-secretary-general at UN headquarters.
When Mr Ban took over the organisation,
The political post has been held by a series of Britons
since Sir Brian Urquhart, the long-serving official known as “Mr UN”, held the
job from 1971-1985. But after Sir Kieran was forced out in 2005 in a row over
Sir John, a former British Ambassador to Paris, was extremely well qualified to serve as the UN’s chief political officer, having been private secretary and diplomatic adviser to two prime ministers — John Major and Tony Blair.
Mr Ban rejected his candidacy for the political post in what
appeared to be a calculated diplomatic snub in response to
Instead, Mr Ban appointed an American, Lynn Pascoe, as his top political adviser and named Sir John as the UN’s humanitarian chief — a less powerful job.
The appointment raised eyebrows because of Sir John’s almost
total lack of humanitarian experience. Many questioned the wisdom of putting a
citizen of a major Western power in the post because of the difficulties he
would have working in such places as
In recent weeks he has taken charge of relief efforts in
Sir John recently voiced disappointment with the UN response in an internal e-mail that was leaked to Foreign Policy magazine. “This is a major test for all of us and we cannot afford to fail. So I ask you all to take a fresh hard look at what you are able to do in the key areas, and pursue a much more aggressive approach to meeting the needs,” he wrote.
British diplomats have told colleagues that