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The temperature is nearing 47 degrees C in Khartoum as a motorcade roars along the bank of the White Nile, sirens wailing. It halts at the city's conference hall. A short, slightly built man bounds out of a dark-tinted limousine and up the steps, heading to a tête-à-tête with Sudan's President, Lieut. General Omar Hassan al-Bashir. To the crowd of Sudanese gawking outside, the visitor needs no introduction. Bernard Kouchner is back on familiar turf.

More than three decades have passed since Kouchner first railed to the world about the human costs of conflict in Africa. In 1971, while working as a young relief doctor in war-torn Biafra, he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, which would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. At the age of 67, Kouchner is still railing, but with a big difference: he is now the Foreign Minister of France, a post from which he could recast the country's approach to international relations, not least by potentially reviving a tight alliance with Washington.

Back home in Paris a week later, Kouchner paces restlessly around his Quai d'Orsay office — "this golden cage," as he calls it — on the Left Bank, with its crystal chandeliers and priceless tapestries. He circles his desk, bemoaning economic injustices, political paralysis and U.S. missteps in Iraq, and outlining his goals to Time. These include a peaceful transition to independence in Kosovo, multiparty talks in Lebanon, an "honest broker" role for France between the U.S. and Iran, and some relief for Africa's refugees. At the time, he was also preparing for his first big initiative as Foreign Minister: a mini-summit in late June on the more than four years of armed conflict and massacres in Darfur, which have killed up to 200,000 people and left more than 2 million homeless. He had managed to secure the attendance of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and delegations from more than a dozen other countries, including Sudan's major backer, China. For Kouchner, Sudan's absence was no obstacle to progress. "To whom belongs the suffering of people?" he asks. "To the rest of the world. For that we have to yell and make noise and attract attention."

Kouchner attracts plenty of his own attention these days. His appointment in May by the conservative new President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a charge through France's political scene. With one move, Sarkozy robbed his Socialist Party foes of one of their most famous members, tempered his image as a partisan right-winger, and sent a message to leaders across the world that his government would bring big changes. Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and a close friend of Kouchner, calls it an "astonishing" appointment, predicting: "This could mean major changes in French foreign policy in Israel, Africa, Washington. This is not the same old, same old."

If that proves true, it would be welcome news in Washington, where relations with France have been frigid since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Kouchner has well-placed friends in the U.S., speaks fluent English and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health. The rift with Washington is truly over, he says: "We are close allies, we are friends, and it must be so." He believes the schism has hurt France, marginalizing it in key areas. "We have to offer a new perspective in the Middle East," says Kouchner, who advocates bolstering support for moderate Muslims and relieving economic misery among Palestinians, which he says provokes extremism. "It is absolutely impossible to offer such a perspective without the Americans."

Still, Kouchner resists the label "pro-American." He says he will openly criticize the U.S. when necessary, and is distressed and angered by its failures in Iraq, which he calls "counterproductive" and "perverse." But Kouchner did support Saddam Hussein's overthrow, arguing that he deserved to be ousted. That was a near apostasy to his Socialist colleagues, who have never quite forgiven him.

His lonely position on Iraq revealed a characteristic determination to stick to his convictions regardless of the political pressure bearing down on him. "He rattles people's cages," says Holbrooke. "It is what he has always done." And he has paid a price. When Socialist leader François Hollande dismissed Kouchner from the party for joining Sarkozy's Cabinet, Kouchner admits he was hurt. But he's convinced the party needs a drastic overhaul that "will take years." Nearing retirement, he was unwilling to wait that long.

In France, some commentators are openly wondering whether Kouchner will last long as Foreign Minister. They question how much real policymaking power he will actually wield, pointing to signs that Sarkozy is intending to strengthen presidential control over foreign affairs rather than delegate more of it away. It was Sarkozy, not Kouchner, for example, who delivered the opening remarks at the Foreign Ministers' summit on Darfur on June 25. And Sarkozy has brought Jean-David Levitte, the respected former French ambassador to Washington, back to Paris to be his national security adviser, based in the Elysée Palace. Kouchner also has deep political differences with Sarkozy — he voted for Sarkozy's Socialist rival, Ségolène Royal — including a long-standing belief that Turkey should become a member of the European Union, which the President adamantly opposes. Such differences have led to speculation that the Foreign Minister might one day become frustrated and feel undercut. Right now, Kouchner says he is reveling in his big new job, and intends to carry out Sarkozy's policies faithfully. "Now I'm part of the government and the boss is the boss," he says, though he adds that he hopes Sarkozy might reconsider Turkey's entry to the E.U. "I am still trying to convince him," he says.

In the meantime, Kouchner has hardly been relegated to the sidelines. In early June, he convinced Chad's President, Lieut. General Idriss Deby, to allow a French military airdrop of relief supplies to refugees who had fled there from Darfur. On his trip to Khartoum, he also helped convince Sudan's General Bashir to accept some U.N. troops in Darfur. A week later, Kouchner joined Sarkozy in Brussels for an all-night blizzard of lobbying over the new E.U. treaty. One day later, he dined in his office with Condoleezza Rice, on her official first visit to see him. Gushing enthusiastically at each other in front of reporters that evening, Rice dispensed with the usual formalities and called him "Bernard," and Kouchner ended the press conference by planting kisses on both cheeks of his U.S. counterpart.

From Médecins Sans Frontières to his stands on Iraq and Darfur, Kouchner's driving principle has been what he calls "the right to intervene." It's the idea that governments and nongovernmental organizations cannot let another country's sovereignty stop them from fighting injustice. "You cannot offer humanitarian help and then it's over, like a Good Samaritan," he says. Now that he's Foreign Minister, some French aid organizations worry that he may try to deploy French troops to bolster relief efforts. That, they argue, could strip humanitarian groups of their role as impartial actors in political conflicts. More bluntly, Rony Brauman, a former MSF president and one of Kouchner's strongest critics, accuses him of engaging in "media stunts." Kouchner as Foreign Minister is "not good," says Brauman. "He thinks it is our duty to kick out Third World dictators. We think [humanitarian organizations] should stay out of politics."

Choosing Darfur as his first major initiative was perhaps inevitable for Kouchner, who remains at heart a humanitarian activist. Although his Darfur summit failed to soften China, which resolutely opposes sanctions on Sudan, or to settle which foreign troops would be sent there, the tragedy in that region had clearly been given top priority by France, thanks in large part to its new Foreign Minister. In Khartoum, even Bashir — not known for his humor — appeared charmed by his French visitor. Like many African leaders, Bashir has known Kouchner for decades, since the Frenchman's days at MSF. In an anteroom on the top floor of Khartoum's conference center, Bashir joked that Kouchner had several times sneaked into Sudan illegally during the country's long civil war. To Kouchner, those years of frontline experience as a doctor were an invaluable preparation for his new job, and they have, he believes, given him an important edge in political debates with diplomatic colleagues. "The only little advantage I have is that I spent 40 years of my life [working] with my two hands somewhere," he says. "That is all." For now, that perspective has injected a dynamic air of optimism and energy into Kouchner's new role.

• VIVIENNE WALT/Paris
• He co-founded one of the world's most influential aid groups. Now, France's new Foreign Minister wants to bring a fresh sense of social justice to global politics