Obama picks Africanist for UN position

Published: 01 December, 2008

United States president-elect Barack Obama has named his foreign policy team. Amongst the appointments are his rival in the Democratic primaries Hilary Clinton, who will become secretary of state, and Susan Rice, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who will be Mr Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Ms Rice served in Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, where she was director for international organisations and peacekeeping from 1993-1995, at the time of the administration’s much-criticised decision not to intervene in the Rwandan genocide. She was later promoted to special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs and was Mr Clinton’s senior African advisor at the time of the terrorist bombings of the US embassies in Dares Salaam and Nairobi.

Since then, Ms Rice has been a proponent of military intervention in Darfur and a critic of the Sudanese government’s unwillingness to accept a 22,000 UN peacekeeping force. In an October 2002, op-ed in the Washington Post, co-authored with Anthony Lake and Donald Payne, she wrote: “History demonstrates that there is one language Khartoum understands: the credible threat or use of force… After swift diplomatic consultations, the United States should press for a UN resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the UN force within one week or face military consequences.”

Making comparisons with the NATO intervention in the Balkans in 1999, Ms Rice went on to state that, should the US fail to gain such a resolution, it should act without it. While this appears consistent with Mr Obama’s suggestion during his election campaign, that he would be prepared to hold other foreign powers, including UN security council member China, to account in Sudan, it is not the conciliatory approach to the UN that some observers were expecting. However, other analysts have noted that by putting one of his more trusted advisers in the position, and by elevating the role to cabinet level, Mr Obama could be making a statement about the US’ future relationship with the organisation.

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