Reaction to Powell Resignation Mixed Around the World

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s resignation announcement Monday evoked a mixed international reaction of personal sympathy, political disappointment and intense concern over whether his replacement will be another moderate or a hard-line ideologue.

From Paris to Kampala, officials and analysts of U.S. foreign policy said Powell was an honest broker within an administration that was highly unpopular overseas and whose motives have been particularly questioned in Europe and the Middle East.

Yet even among his admirers, Powell never seemed to measure up to the larger-than-life persona he first brought to the job. Many people said he made little mark on U.S. foreign policy and appeared easily outmaneuvered by more aggressive and ideological members of the Bush team, some of whom may now be in line to succeed him.

Reaction to the announcement varied by region. Some African officials, accustomed to a lack of U.S. interest in their problems, praised Powell for pushing African issues onto the administration’s agenda. In the Middle East, where Powell’s impassioned argument for war with Iraq before the United Nations cost him many admirers, he was described as mostly ineffectual…{{link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52661-2004Nov15.html MORE}}

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