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Home , Mark Malloch Brown, Minister for Africa

22 WebMemo Published by The Heritage Foundation No. 1534 July 2, 2007

The Appointment of Will Strain U.S.–British Relations Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.

The appointment of Sir Mark Malloch Brown as stage and a constant thorn in the side of the United the U.K.’s new , Asia, and the States. He launched an unprecedented attack on is the clearest sign yet of a break Washington’s approach to the U.N. in a speech in with the pro-U.S. stance of the Blair government. New York in June 2006, despite the fact that Wash- Malloch Brown, who served as chief of staff and ington gives over $5 billion a year to the U.N. sys- deputy to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi tem—more than France, Germany, China, Canada, Annan, is well known for his stridently anti-Ameri- and Russia combined. Malloch Brown warned of can views and fierce opposition to the war in Iraq. the “serious consequences of a decades-long ten- Although Malloch Brown will not be a full member dency by U.S. Administrations of both parties to of ’s Cabinet, he will be entitled to engage only fitfully with the U.N.” and condemned attend some cabinet meetings and is expected to “the prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. become one of the most powerful voices in British almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing foreign policy after , the newly to stand up for it against its domestic critics.”2 He appointed (and also a critic of the singled out for particular criticism Washington’s and ’s support for Israel). His decision to opt out of joining the disastrous new selection sends a clear signal that the Brown govern- U.N. Human Rights Council, despite the fact that it ment will adopt a more openly critical stance was no better than the discredited former Human toward U.S. foreign policy. Rights Commission.3 A Critic of U.S. Foreign Policy. Malloch Brown Malloch Brown could barely disguise his con- served as ’s chief aide during the investi- tempt for the American public and media, speaking gations into the massive U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal of “unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping” and and played a lead role in downplaying the U.N.’s a “U.S. heartland [that] has been largely abandoned failings,1 bringing him into conflict with the Bush to its [the U.N.’s] loudest detractors, such as Rush Administration and leading Senators and congress- Limbaugh and .” What was needed in men who were pressing hard for reform of the world response, he argued, was for America’s leaders to body. Before joining the Secretary-General’s office, support the U.N. “not just in a whisper but in a coast Malloch Brown was head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a dysfunctional

U.N. agency that has recently become embroiled in This paper, in its entirety, can be found at: a series of major scandals. www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/wm1534.cfm As a U.N. official, Malloch Brown was an out- Produced by The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom Published by The Heritage Foundation spoken critic of American leadership on the world 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002–4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. No. 1534 WebMemo July 2, 2007

to coast shout, that pushes back the critics domesti- Annan had sparked a major controversy in Septem- cally, and wins over the skeptics internationally.” 123 ber 2004, just weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential The speech was also an extraordinary interven- election, when he described the war with Iraq as an tion in domestic American politics. In what can “illegal” violation of the U.N. Charter in an inter- only be described as the first stump speech by an view with the BBC. Annan followed these remarks international civil servant on U.S. soil, Malloch with a further intervention on the Iraq issue in Brown rallied his largely liberal audience4 with November 2004, when he wrote a letter to U.S., these stirring words: British, and Iraqi leaders appealing for Coalition forces to hold back from retaking the insurgent-held Back in Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s day, city of Fallujah. building a strong, effective U.N. that could play this kind of role was a bipartisan enter- Malloch Brown’s New York speech echoed a 2005 commencement address he delivered at Pace prise, with the likes of Arthur Vandenberg and 7 John Foster Dulles joining Democrats to sup- University School of Law, in which he launched a port the new body. Who are their successors in stinging attack on what he perceived to be America’s American politics? Who will campaign in lack of respect for international law. In his remarks, 2008 for a new multilateral national security?5 Malloch Brown painted the United States as an uncooperative superpower that acts outside of the Malloch Brown’s remarks were rightly described rules, without respect for others: by then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations as “condescending and patronizing” And it’s clear that abroad, President Bush’s and “a very serious affront” to the American people. push for democracy and freedom will run Bolton called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan aground on the shoals of American exception- to repudiate his deputy’s comments, which he alism if the United States keeps apart from this viewed as “the worst mistake” by a U.N. official in a emerging international legal system. While the quarter century.6 U.S.’s involvement has made the World Trade Organization a powerful facilitator of free Malloch Brown’s intervention was symptomatic trade and global growth, elsewhere, America of an increasing tendency among U.N. officials to stands apart. The United States is the country openly criticize American foreign policy. Kofi that has opposed the International Criminal

1. See Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., “An Assessment of the Volcker Interim Report and Inquiry Committee Into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program,” Testimony before the House Subcommittee on International Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on International Relations, February 9, 2005, at www.heritage.org/Research/ InternationalOrganizations/tst020905a.cfm. 2. Mark Malloch Brown, “Power and Superpower: Global Leadership in the 21st Century,” address to the Century Foundation and Center for American Progress, June 6, 2006, at www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/dsgsm287.doc.htm. 3. See Brett Schaefer and Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., “The Right Decision on the UN Human Rights Council,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 1031, April 6, 2006, at www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/wm1031.cfm. 4. The audience included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Democrat financier , who also happened to be Mark Malloch Brown’s landlord. See “Losing the United Nations,” , June 8, 2006, at www.nysun.com/article/34079. Just weeks before his appointment to the British government, Malloch Brown was made vice president of Soros’s multi-billion dollar Quantum Fund. See Benny Avni, “Ex-Deputy UN Chief Joins with Soros,” The New York Sun, May 7, 2007, at www.nysun.com/article/53955. 5. Malloch Brown, “Power and Superpower: Global Leadership in the 21st Century.” 6. U.S. Department of State, “UN Official’s Remarks a ‘Grave Mistake,’ U.S.’s Bolton Says,” Press Release, June 7, 2006, at http://usinfo.state.gov/is/Archive/2006/Jun/08-236703.html. 7. Mark Malloch Brown, Commencement Address to the Pace University School of Law, May 22, 2005, at http://content. undp.org/go/newsroom/may-2005/mark-malloch-browns-commencement-address-to-the-pace-university-school-of-law.en;jsessionid= axbWzt8vXD9?categoryID=593045&lang=en.

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Court, the Kyoto Protocol on the environ- humanitarian work off the straight and narrow of ment, even UNICEF’s convention on the rights non-impartial help.”8 of the child. A Barrier to Anglo–American Cooperation. Because this great ungainly magnificent giant Other than outspoken former International Devel- of a nation that has led the world in advanc- opment Secretary Clare Short, few, if any, British ing freedom, democracy, and decency cannot politicians are more disdainful of U.S. foreign policy quite accept membership of the global neigh- than Mark Malloch Brown. His appointment is a borhood association, and the principle of all slap in the face of the Anglo–American alliance and neighborhoods—that it must abide by others’ does not bode well for relations between the Brown rules as well as its own. It certainly doesn’t government and the Bush Administration. want to paint its picket fence the same color Faced with the rising threat of global terrorism, as the neighbors and won’t turn down the the insurgency in Iraq, counteroffensives by the Tal- dance music at a sociable hour… Yet respect iban in Afghanistan, and the looming threat of a for law, for other people’s laws as a basis for nuclear-armed Iran, the next few years will be a crit- building shared international law is not only ical time for U.S.–U.K. relations. It is imperative a calculus of foreign policy, it is also a reflec- that and Washington work together in tion of respect for other cultures and points addressing the major international issues of the day, of view and therefore as relevant to the which will involve close cooperation on the U.N. United States as to others. Security Council. It is hard to see how Malloch More recently, Malloch Brown took another Brown’s appointment to the British government will swipe at Washington in a London speech, blaming help to advance the special relationship. the U.S.–British-led invasion of Iraq for “a loss of —Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., is Director of the Margaret credibility” for humanitarian workers serving in Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division of the Kathryn trouble spots such as Darfur who are no longer and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International seen as neutral: “Iraq is the immediate cause for Studies, at The Heritage Foundation. Intern Joseph this. And 9/11 the preceding trigger, but both Cutler assisted with research for this paper. come at the end of a process that has knocked

8. Anne Penketh, “UN No Longer Seen as Neutral, Says Former Chief,” The Independent, June 25, 2007, at http://news. independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2705369.ece.

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