Kouchner, a Socialist humanitarian crusader, becomes minister in conservative government

PARIS, May 21 – Bernard Kouchner, former U.N. administrator for Kosovo, became France’s foreign minister on Friday in conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first Cabinet.
Kouchner served as the first U.N. administrator in Kosovo following the United Nations taking control of the southern province of Serbia in 1999. This followed a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia aimed at halting Serb forces’ crackdown on ethnic Albanians.
In 1992 the unorthodox Socialist was minister for humanitarian action and a key player in a French policy of turning intervention into a moral crusade.
Kouchner is also co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning aid group Doctors Without Borders
That very likely means that France’s diminished world voice will be heard loud and clear once again and could signal a more interventionist, high-minded, and U.S.-friendly tone in its diplomacy.
Both Sarkozy and Kouchner place strong emphasis on France’s ties with the United States. Kouchner stood out in dovish France in 2003 as one of the few who said that a U.S.-led war in Iraq might not be as bad as leaving Saddam Hussein in power.
Kouchner’s appointment was both a political coup and a gamble for Sarkozy as they are not natural partners. Kouchner backed Socialist Segolene Royal for the presidency. For the Socialists reeling from defeat, Kouchner’s defection is a blow, even a betrayal.
An intriguing question is whether Sarkozy and Kouchner, two men of different political stripes, strong characters, vastly different backgrounds and different generations can work together effectively for long and without destructive controversy.
Kouchner, 67, took part in the nation-shaking May 1968 student protests that Sarkozy, 52, vigorously attacked during his campaign, as being the root of many French ills.
To a Dutch magazine in 2001, Kouchner acknowledged that he has smoked cannabis and argued that its use should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco. On the campaign trail, teetotalling Sarkozy promised “total war” against drugs and ruled out its legalization.
As a Socialist minister for Humanitarian Action from 1988-1993, Kouchner acted as a virtual second foreign minister, with televised relief missions to global hot spots, jetting from Bosnian prison camps to Somalian emergency kitchens. He was one of the first officials in the world to push for the idea of U.N. interference in cases of humanitarian disaster.
Kouchner was sometimes criticized by relief workers who complained that his ministry jeopardized independent aid agencies, leading them to be seen as tools of French policy.
Kouchner is married to one of France’s most respected television journalists, Christine Ockrent.