French Socialist Party leader Dominique Strauss Khan arrives with his wife Anne Sinclair to attend the summer university meeting of Socialist Party in La Rochelle, southwest France in this August 26, 2006 file photo.Daniel Joubert/Reuters
This is not the most fashionable argument one could make so soon after the events in New York at the weekend. But let me say it flat out: I believe the case for a European successor to Dominique Strauss-Kahn is overwhelming.
To be clear: I am not supporting the principle that the managing director of the International Monetary Fund should, by default, be a European. On the contrary, I believe the job should always go the most capable candidate. I just believe that considering the IMF's current priorities, one should not be so quick to rule out a European candidate at this point.
The IMF's most important programmes are currently European. The eurozone's contagious financial crisis constitutes the biggest threat to global financial stability today. The IMF is a partner in the multilateral loan programme for Greece, and a structural partner in the eurozone's financial rescue mechanism. The size of these programmes dwarfs whatever else the IMF is doing at the moment.
What is perhaps not so much appreciated outside the euro zone has been the IMF's political role in keeping the eurozone's rescue strategy on track. Mr Strauss-Kahn was respected by both Angela Merkel (whom he had planned to visit on the weekend when he was arraigned) and by George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister. He supported the view, also held by the European Central Bank, that a eurozone member should not rush into default. The euro zone clearly needed the IMF's technical competences in dealing with its sovereign debt crises - a set of skills largely absent in the European institutions. It also needed the IMF's co-financing. But the IMF's single most important influence in eurozone crisis resolution has been political. In a situation marked by a lack of political leadership, the IMF filled a vacuum.
So I wonder to what extent a highly competent Mexican central banker, for example, would be able to fulfil this role? The various candidates mentioned as potential successors to Mr. Strauss-Kahn are technically skilled, but in assessing their relative merits, we should take into account that the new IMF chief will deal with mostly European issues for most of his or her first term at the top level. He or she will have to bang heads together in meetings of European finance ministers, and will have to converse effectively with some notoriously difficult heads of government and state. Whoever is appointed should, in principle, be able to have the German chancellor's ear. Mr Strauss-Kahn did. His visit ahead of the announcement of the first Greek loan programme a year ago was a critical step in preventing a calamity. A PhD in economics and an extensive experience in dealing with financial instability may be desirable qualities. But at a time like this, they are not sufficient. The game has changed.
The Europeans have monopolised this position. That must stop, and it will stop. But now, and probably for the first time, we may actually need a European managing director - at least a director with some knowledge and experience of European affairs. The Europeans would be foolish to let go of this position at a time like this. There are plenty of excellent candidates, including Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister. The reason is not an attempt to cling on to power. The reason is to ensure that the job gets done.