经济学人64:风生水起,恃强凌弱

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　　文艺；书评；理查德·霍尔布鲁克；风生水起，恃强凌弱；

　　The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World. Edited by Derek Chollet and Samantha Power.

　　《不安分的美国人：理查德·霍尔布鲁克世界作为记》。德里克·乔列特和萨曼莎·帕沃编辑。

　　Richard Holbrooke, an American diplomat² known by friend and foe³ as a bulldozer, was accustomed to getting his way. His final assignment to fix the mess in Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, proved more than he bargained for.

　　理查德·霍尔布鲁克，一位美国外交官，朋友和对手都认为他是个恃强凌弱的人，他做事总是我行我素。然而，他的最后一次任务——收拾阿富汗和巴基斯坦的烂摊子——却没能如他所愿。

　　Barack Obama appointed him as his presidential envoy⁴, but Mr Holbrooke held little authority. Senior officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who resented his abrasive⁵ personality and his relative lack of knowledge of the region, kept him at arm's length. At home, American generals and the CIA ran the show. Most debilitating⁶, Mr Obama, whose distaste for self-promotion is well documented, treated his envoy with a coolness not unlike that shown by many of the subcontinent's leaders.

　　霍尔布鲁克先生由巴拉克·奥巴马指定为自己的总统特使，但手上几乎没有什么权力。阿富汗和巴基斯坦的高级官员都看不惯他蛮横粗暴的性格，指责他对当地相关情况不了解，对他敬而远之。而美国国内事务由将军和中央情报局掌管。最削弱他意志的是，人人皆知奥巴马先生最讨厌像霍尔布鲁克先生这样毛遂自荐的人，因而总统对他的特使态度冷淡，和次大陆国家领导人常有的不冷不热的态度没什么两样。

　　This frustrating⁷ final post of Holbrooke's life, coupled with his failure to get the job he most coveted⁸, secretary of state, may have been what prompted his friends to assemble an encomium⁹ in such fast order that it appears less than a year after he died. This tribute offers essays by colleagues, protégés, several journalists (a tribe on which he lavished¹⁰ unwavering attention), as well as his wife, Kati Marton, a former foreign correspondent. The reader is presented with mostly admiring anecdotes¹¹ about Holbrooke's early days in Vietnam as a questioning foreign-service officer, his rebellious¹² tenure¹³ as Peace Corps¹⁴ director in Morocco, and onwards and upwards¹⁵ as assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, peace negotiator for Bosnia and ambassador to the United Nations.

　　霍尔布鲁克先生人生中最后的工作让人提不起劲儿来，再加上他没始终能坐上自己最想要的职位，国务卿，或许是这些原因使得他的朋友们在他去世后不到一年的时间里就为他写好了颂词，这本颂词的文章作者有他生前的同事、受保护人、几名记者（他生前坚定不移地给予关注的群体），还有他曾是一名外事通讯记者的妻子卡蒂·马顿。读者将会看到霍尔布鲁克先生早年在越南发生的令人羡慕的奇闻异事，那时，他还是个喜欢刨根问底的驻外事务部官员；还将重温他作为美国和平队执行官在摩洛哥时的叛逆时光，作为东亚和太平洋地区事务助理秘书时平步青云的时代，以及作波斯尼亚和平谈判员和联合国大使时的经历。

　　This all feels less complex and engaging than the man himself. More striking are Holbrooke's own writings on foreign policy. Whenever he needed to drive a point home, particularly on subjects he was in the midst of negotiating, he was quick to put pen to paper. The editors have selected some short pieces on Bosnia that stand out for their passion, and that pass the test of time.

　　这些都不如他本人更立体更有魅力。最令人吃惊的霍尔布鲁克先生自己写的关于外交政策方面的文章，不论什么时候，只要他认为有必要把问题讲清楚，尤其是他正在谈判中的问题，他会立刻用笔纸写下来。编者遴选了他的几篇有关波斯尼亚问题的短文，文章富有激情，经得住时间的考验。

　　A stellar piece of Holbrookeiana, now 40 years old but more current than ever, is a critique of the lumbering¹⁶ process of foreign-policy making in Washington, DC. The endemic caution, overstaffing and endless circulation of policy papers among dozens of bureaucrats¹⁷ mean that presidents and secretaries of state often lack the guidance they need. “The massive foreign affairs machine built up during the post-war era rumbles¹⁸ on, as ornate and unwieldy as ever,” he wrote after being in the Foreign Service less than ten years. A routine cable on a humanitarian¹⁹ issue needed 27 clearances²⁰ in Washington before being sent to the field, he discloses. The essay was passed around the state department earlier this year. It still feels accurate, say the editors of this book.

　　霍尔布鲁克先生有一篇非常精彩的文章，写了已经有40年了，但现在看来比以往任何时候都更具时效性，这就是对华盛顿政府制定外交政策过程拖沓的批评。一贯的过分谨慎，人员冗余，以及几十个官僚无休止地审查政策文件，这都表示总统和国务卿常常无法得到他们所需要的指导。“二战后建立起来的庞大的外交事务机器现在还在隆隆地缓慢运作着，和以往一样零件过多、运作笨拙，”只在驻外事务部待了不到10年的他就这样写到。他披露到，一份关于人权问题的常规电报要在华盛顿经过27次检阅才能送往外地。今年早些时候，这篇文章已分发给国务院。本书编者说，对于文章所提到的问题，现在的情况仍然是这样。

　　Mr Holbrooke accomplished²¹ much. He might have done more in South Asia and, perhaps, Washington if he had understood that the bullying tactics he used to forge a peace in Bosnia did not necessarily work elsewhere. “If Richard calls and asks you for something, just say yes,” Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying. “If you say no, you'll eventually get to yes, but the journey will be very painful.” In Pakistan and Afghanistan it was hard for Mr Holbrooke to even start making calls.

　　霍尔布鲁克先生取得了很多成就。在南亚，他本能做更多，如果他能明白自己辛苦在波斯尼亚建立和平局势所采用的欺凌策略并不是在任何其他地方都受用的，也许他在华盛顿也会有更大作为。“如果理查德打电话来问你什么事情，只管说是，”亨利·基辛格这样说过，“如果你说否，最终你还是要说是，只是这个过程将会非常痛苦。”在巴基斯坦和阿富汗，霍尔布鲁克先生甚至还没来得及打电话。

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