newsroom

TODAY Friday 21 November 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: Tim Wirth's Inscrutable Adventure

Last week this column pretended to some punditry and talked about the poker hand that would be played by Undersecretary of State Timothy Wirth at the upcoming Kyoto conference on climate change ("Tim Wirth's Excellent Adventure"). Clueless us. Ted Turner's announcement two days ago that Undersecretary Wirth would assume the presidency of his billion-dollars-in-ten-years United Nations Foundation apparently rules out Wirth as head of the US delegation to Kyoto and even imperils his membership in the delegation.

I say "apparently" because that's what the newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times) say. They say that key "Administration officials" were surprised and miffed at the move and at its timing (Wirth's resignation takes effect at year's end). They report rumors that Wirth was disappointed in the low aim of the Administration's treaty proposal. They say that Administration pique runs so high that Wirth may be denied a seat in the Kyoto delegation though he (reasonably) says he doesn't know why his new job should preclude his going.

Well. First of all there's the substance of the job change. A smart person sitting on a billion dollars with which to carrot-and-stick the United Nations wields more influence than an Undersecretary of State. The pay is better and you get to live in New York instead of Washington. No one protested earlier this year when then-Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Joan Spero left Foggy Bottom for the presidency of the new $1.2 billion Doris Duke Foundation.

It's the timing that's questionable. And on this point, allow me to advance a Machiavellian proposition or two.

Let's say you're Bill Clinton. You know that the real test of a Kyoto treaty comes in the US Senate next year (c.f. Hibernicus, "Half A Loaf..."). You know that at the end of the day the enviros will back almost anything that comes out of Kyoto and that nothing will come out of Kyoto that isn't close to the US position anyway. And you know that the opposition to the treaty will come from fossil fuel interests and from right-wing Senators (usually they intersect, but not always). And you know that winning ratification will depend on your ability to attract enough public opinion to your side that Senators are wary of appearing anti-environmental and to mollify a significant enough fraction of Big Business that the opposition's charges of national economic suicide don't stick as well as they would like.

So who is the best person to assume a high profile in Kyoto? Maybe not Tim Wirth, for he is identified as a green. Maybe you want a delegation head not heretofore linked with environmentalism, someone with a record of promoting American economic interests overseas and with kowtowing at key moments to powerful right-wing senators (Tim Wirth would win no popularity contest among former colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle). And so maybe it's no coincidence that the person rumored to be chosen to head the delegation is Joan Spero's successor as Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs, Stuart Eizenstat. Once Domestic Policy Advisor to Jimmy Carter, Eizenstat has made a comeback as a realpolitik foreign affairs man. Lately he's been appearing in Asian capitals as the US representative in behind-the-scene discussions on how to shore up plummeting currencies. He has adopted a more-or-less high profile as a promoter of American exports and American foreign investments. And -- perhaps most important -- he has performed the hard duty of defending (at least in public) the indefensible Helms-Burton Amendment, which threatens sanctions on foreign enterprises trading with Cuba. That's the HELMS-Burton Amendment.

So maybe, just maybe, all is for the best in the best of all possible political/diplomatic worlds. Luck to Tim Wirth (may he go to Kyoto as a delegate). Luck to the person who heads the delegation (what about Secretary Albright?). And very good luck to all of us policy addicts who are treated with the spectacle of intrigue in high places on an issue that matters.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

It's confirmed. Bill McKibben, the world's best commentator on the politics of climate change, will be attending the Kyoto conference and sending back electronic dispatches from the front. Exclusively for Liberty Tree, starting on 5 December. We'll keep you posted.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

11/20: Better to Receive than to Give
11/19: Wes Jackson's Problem with Agriculture
11/18: "Stay Home and Be Decent"
11/17: World Cups (Soccer; C02)
11/14: Amtrak, My Amtrak
11/13: Tim Wirth's Excellent Adventure
11/12: Monsters of Wellesley, Massachusetts
11/11: Armistice Day and the Next Great War
11/10: Mea Maxima Culpa
11/07: Inflexible Flyers

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.