Signing up for a second stint as a troubleshooter in the political and military minefields of Afghanistan might seem like a peculiar brand of masochism. But for veteran Spanish diplomat Francesc Vendrell, who departs for Kabul this week as the European Union's special envoy to that country, it is of a piece with the work he has been doing for the past 34 years. Could it be any more challenging than his efforts to broker peace between the warring factions in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua in the late 1980s and early 1990s? Or any more fraught with difficulty than his subsequent efforts to untangle East Timor's parlous relations with Indonesia?
It could be all that and more. Vendrell, 62, witnessed firsthand the dissolution of Afghanistan as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal representative to the country from February 2000 until January of this year. He observed the gradual undermining of the Taliban by al-Qaeda and helped to arrange Ahmed Shah Massoud's successful trip to Europe in April of 2001 — which gave outsiders a tantalizing glimpse of the charismatic Northern Alliance opposition leader before his assassination on Sept. 9. Vendrell also argued repeatedly and in vain with his contacts in the Taliban to give up Osama bin Laden or suffer the consequences. "The minute I heard about Sept. 11, I knew this would mean the end of the Taliban," he says. And he knew that time was of the essence in getting a new central government in place before the natural entropy of a country riven by ethnic loyalties could assert itself.
After six months as a special adviser to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid, Vendrell has spent the past few weeks making contacts in the E.U.'s nascent foreign policy executive. He has been allotted an office in a nondescript building on Brussels' Cinquantenaire Park that features nearly impenetrable security arrangements. The guards and lock-down revolving doors seem to reflect the desired rather than the real power of his immediate boss, European Council Secretary-General Javier Solana, who is looking to assert the E.U.'s weight on the world stage.
Vendrell's new position was first occupied by German diplomat Klaus Peter Klaiber, who was named to the post last December. The highly visible role is meant to help nudge the E.U.'s global political presence up toward its economic might, which rivals that of the U.S. The E.U. has pledged to provide a quarter of the aid the World Bank has estimated Afghanistan will need over the next five years, and European troops continue to provide the backbone to the international security forces in the country. "My job will be more political than humanitarian," says Vendrell, "though I can count on Europe's assistance to help leverage our objectives."
The former East German embassy in the bedraggled city of Kabul, where Vendrell will set up shop with four international staffers, is a far cry from the U.N.'s swanky neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan, the closest thing to a home the peripatetic Vendrell can lay claim to. When this six-month assignment is over, he thinks he might leave the peacemaking to someone else. It would be a fitting cap to his career if Afghanistan were even a little more stable when he takes his leave.
TIME: In your last Afghan stint the objective gradually became clear: stop the Taliban. The main challenge now?
Vendrell: To establish the authority of the central government, while assuring that it becomes a lot more representative of the whole population.
TIME: Lately it's been seriously threatened.
Vendrell: True. Every month the warlords get stronger, and the international community loses interest. The longer the situation festers, the worse it will get. Now is the time it may be important to make our enemies.
TIME: That means the U.S. and Europe have to agree on the good and bad guys. Is that possible given the current differences?
Vendrell: I don't think there's any difference when it comes to wanting a stable Afghanistan that stays that way.
TIME: What about the rivalries among neighboring countries that have long exacerbated the situation in the country?
Vendrell: I think all of Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, have become a force for stability. Nobody wants a warring state next door.
TIME: Will you have as much clout as you did with the U.N. under the banner of an E.U. trying to establish its foreign policy bona fides?
Vendrell: You'd have to ask me in six months. Sure, the E.U. has to develop its foreign and security policy, but so does the U.N.