Diplomat Without Borders

The temperature is nearing 47 degrees C in Khartoum as a motorcade roars along the bank of the White Nile, sirens wailing. It halts at the city's conference hall. A short, slightly built man bounds out of a dark-tinted limousine and up the steps, heading to a tête-à-tête with Sudan's President, Lieut. General Omar Hassan al-Bashir. To the crowd of Sudanese gawking outside, the visitor needs no introduction. Bernard Kouchner is back on familiar turf.

More than three decades have passed since Kouchner first railed to the world about the human costs of conflict in Africa. In 1971, while working as a young relief doctor in war-torn Biafra, he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) or Doctors Without Borders, which would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. At the age of 67, Kouchner is still railing, but with a big difference: he is now the Foreign Minister of France, a post from which he could recast the country's approach to international relations, not least by potentially reviving a tight alliance with Washington.

Back home in Paris a week later, Kouchner paces restlessly around his Quai d'Orsay office — "this golden cage," as he calls it — on the Left Bank, with its crystal chandeliers and priceless tapestries. He circles his desk, bemoaning economic injustices, political paralysis and U.S. missteps in Iraq, and outlining his goals to Time. These include a peaceful transition to independence in Kosovo, multiparty talks in Lebanon, an "honest broker" role for France between the U.S. and Iran, and some relief for Africa's refugees. At the time, he was also preparing for his first big initiative as Foreign Minister: a mini-summit in late June on the more than four years of armed conflict and massacres in Darfur, which have killed up to 200,000 people and left more than 2 million homeless. He had managed to secure the attendance of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and delegations from more than a dozen other countries, including Sudan's major backer, China. For Kouchner, Sudan's absence was no obstacle to progress. "To whom belongs the suffering of people?" he asks. "To the rest of the world. For that we have to yell and make noise and attract attention."

Kouchner attracts plenty of his own attention these days. His appointment in May by the conservative new President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a charge through France's political scene. With one move, Sarkozy robbed his Socialist Party foes of one of their most famous members, tempered his image as a partisan right-winger, and sent a message to leaders across the world that his government would bring big changes. Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and a close friend of Kouchner, calls it an "astonishing" appointment, predicting: "This could mean major changes in French foreign policy in Israel, Africa, Washington. This is not the same old, same old."

If that proves true, it would be welcome news in Washington, where relations with France have been frigid since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Kouchner has well-placed friends in the U.S., speaks fluent English and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health. The rift with Washington is truly over, he says: "We are close allies, we are friends, and it must be so." He believes the schism has hurt France, marginalizing it in key areas. "We have to offer a new perspective in the Middle East," says Kouchner, who advocates bolstering support for moderate Muslims and relieving economic misery among Palestinians, which he says provokes extremism. "It is absolutely impossible to offer such a perspective without the Americans."

Still, Kouchner resists the label "pro-American." He says he will openly criticize the U.S. when necessary, and is distressed and angered by its failures in Iraq, which he calls "counterproductive" and "perverse." But Kouchner did support Saddam Hussein's overthrow, arguing that he deserved to be ousted. That was a near apostasy to his Socialist colleagues, who have never quite forgiven him.

His lonely position on Iraq revealed a characteristic determination to stick to his convictions regardless of the political pressure bearing down on him. "He rattles people's cages," says Holbrooke. "It is what he has always done." And he has paid a price. When Socialist leader François Hollande dismissed Kouchner from the party for joining Sarkozy's Cabinet, Kouchner admits he was hurt. But he's convinced the party needs a drastic overhaul that "will take years." Nearing retirement, he was unwilling to wait that long.