With the U.S. storming into Afghanistan with tens of thousands of combat troops and a surge of diplomatic officials across the region, there are concerns the Americans will strive to take near total control of the situation.
As a result, there are increasing calls for Canada to set up a group of eminent persons—made up of experts and others who have an intimate familiarity with the region, its history, and key players—to carry the international community's diplomatic torch and balance the new U.S. focus.
The idea of a group of eminent persons was first proposed by Fen Hampson, director of Carleton's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, to "widen the circle of conversation" about the future of the region.
Worried that Canada and others already in Afghanistan risk being sidelined by the overwhelming military and diplomatic force of the U.S., Mr. Hampson said a group of eminent persons could be a critical forum for generating ideas and solutions.
"At the end of the day, I think we have to recognize that the major player in this game is the one that has the most troops on the ground and the most treasure at stake, and that's the United States," Mr. Hampson said. "[But] it's in great danger of exporting its own diplomatic confusion into a conflict zone that isn't just limited to Afghanistan. This [eminent persons group] would be a subtle and credible way of bringing other ideas to the table."
Mr. Hampson added that the group would have the advantage of working below the official level—without the high stakes that follow an official diplomat, such as Richard Holbrooke, the United States special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan—to start talking with people across the region, building a network of key players, and coming up with ideas.
Not long after Mr. Hampson raised the idea with members of the Commons' Foreign Affairs committee last month, NDP Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar carried it with him on a trip abroad to the British-German Dialogue on Defence and Security Policies in London.
In a speech to the gathering of centre-left politicians from Germany and Britain, Mr. Dewar pitched the idea of a group of eminent persons as "a more substantive approach" that would contribute to the "political surge" called for by Kai Eide, the special representative of the UN secretary-general to Afghanistan.
"I would like to see our government convene an eminent persons group that could take on the challenges to engagement," Mr. Dewar said. "Canada should be taking an active role in the establishment of such a group because we have experience on the ground."
Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae, who has repeatedly called on the government to appoint a special envoy to the region, said a group of eminent persons could be a useful addition to the proposals and ideas already circulating.
"The real effort has to be made in the field of politics to try to find a basis for greater stability in Pakistan as well as greater stability in Afghanistan," Mr. Rae said. "We also believe there has to be a stronger political and diplomatic effort. Whether that's done through the eminent persons or any other ideas that are presented, I think it's important that we be ready to discuss those in an open way."
One of the names repeatedly mentioned for the eminent persons group is Canadian Mokhtar Lamani.
Mr. Lamani, currently a senior visiting fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont., has spent his fair share of time on the ground in such conflict zones. In 1998, Mr. Lamani was in Afghanistan as special representative of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, where he worked closely with UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who has also been suggested for the group.
In recent years, Mr. Lamani has worked as special permanent representative for Iraq to broker peace between fractious parties and sectarian groups in Iraq, while at the same time building peaceful relations between it and neighbouring countries. He said that he and Mr. Brahimi do know many of the key figures in and around Afghanistan, and he even recalls meeting and speaking with Afghan warlords.
"It's a very good idea, first of all, because it's not getting anywhere, the current situation in Afghanistan. And actually it's even worsening," Mr. Lamani said. "And second, I do strongly believe that Canada is in very, very good conditions to have its own signature in this making and development.
"If it's though an eminent persons group—you have to take all aspects and the whole region to make some very pragmatic proposals—I think this is the best way."
Despite the heavy-weight support gathering around the idea, Mr. Hampson and others do not expect to see it come to fruition anytime soon, in part because Canada's efforts in Afghanistan are already tugging on Canada's limited diplomatic resources.
In a sparsely-attended debate in the House of Commons last Thursday, in advance of yesterday's International Conference on Afghanistan in The Hague, Mr. Dewar and the NDP officially called on the government to act in creating such a group.
Although debated, the idea did not receive much official support, and the parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, Deepak Obhrai, outright dismissed it as creating "endless panels."
Similarly, earlier that week in the Foreign Affairs Committee, David Mulroney, the head of the government's Afghanistan Task Force, gave little credence to the proposal.
"I think the real challenge is, as I say, coherence. We have to reinforce the actors who are there. For Canada, the eminent person is Kai Eide, who is the secretary-general's special representative," Mr. Mulroney said. "We need to do, as we have done, everything we can to support him in his efforts to bring coherence to development and diplomacy in Afghanistan."
mcollins@embassymag.ca