US special envoy to the North Paula Dobriansky brings drive to the role, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington
When Paula Dobriansky became the US special envoy for Northern Ireland last February, some in Dublin and Belfast were privately sceptical about how much attention she would give to her new role.
After all, as under secretary for democracy and global affairs, Dobriansky is already responsible for everything from climate change and environmental issues to human rights and the promotion of democracy.
Adding to the suspicion was her background as a neoconservative ideologue, a founding member of the Project for a New American Century, which was calling for war against Iraq before President Bush came to power.
Six months on, Irish officials report that Dobriansky has taken to her Northern role with gusto, using her extensive contacts to ensure the Executive in Belfast gets the help it needs. Northern politicians on both sides, who have traditionally grumbled about US envoys, are falling over themselves to praise Dobriansky.
"The energy and drive that Paula has brought to her position is quite exciting and very convincing. It's not an act. She's really determined to do something," Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told me.
When we met at her office, Dobriansky had just hosted a breakfast for Northern ministers, including McGuinness and Finance Minister Peter Robinson, to discuss a new US business advisory group to encourage investment in the North.
"We also anticipate that we'll have a number of Irish-Americans who know the situation very well. We expect them to render key advice, to reach out to CEOs, to companies, to get them engaged in investing in Northern Ireland," she said.
Dobriansky argues that setting up the advisory group and sending three trade missions to the North later this year show the US is serious about ensuring the Executive succeeds. For her, the US interest in Ireland goes beyond the bonds of ancestry and chimes with the democracy agenda she maintains is at the heart of Bush's foreign policy.
"When you achieve peace and stability in one part of the world, it has ramifications for other parts and many of the developments that have taken place here, we believe could well be used and drawn from in other parts of the world where conflict still prevails," she said.
The pivotal US move during the peace process may have been president Bill Clinton's decision to allow Gerry Adams to visit the US in 1994 - before the IRA declared a ceasefire or renounced violence. Dobriansky is slow to apply the logic of this move to other conflicts, however, or to question the administration's policy of not talking to terrorists. "There might be elements which are applicable but each situation you have to look at individually," she said.