Withdrawal sends signal to allies: Semple

Published November 25, 2009

Michael Semple is known to be more hands-on than most foreign diplomats posted to Afghanistan. A speaker of Afghan languages with a penchant for roaming the Pashtun belt, Mr. Semple blends in, equipped with local clothing, a beard—and sometimes an AK-47.

Until recently the deputy head of the European Union's mission to Afghanistan, this Irishman is currently teaching at Harvard's Carr Centre for...