Jobs in European organizations have long been a favoured booby prize for failed politicians. One or two of them – Roy Jenkins and Jacques Delors, for example – made the most of their European assignments. The exception to this practice has been NATO. Its Secretary General – always a European and, for the past couple of decades, a staid, earnest northwestern European male – took the job as a step up to statesmanship. That may be about to change. There have been rumours that Theresa May is interested in the post. Another possibility making the rounds is the current French defence minister, Florence Parly. The former is probably a non-starter; it’s hard to think of a single NATO member, including the UK, who would want to offer another large pulpit from which to hear the Sunday cadences of Mrs May again. The latter could be interesting. To some people it might flip the status of the job on its head, making Parly look (probably unfairly) like a booby prize for the alliance. From the French point of view, though, what better way to keep the Germans in, the Russians down, and the Americans out?
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