Foreign Minister Jakob Gijsbert de Hoop Scheffer was named secretary-general of NATO on Monday. De Hoop Scheffer, who is widely known as Jaap, is a career diplomat and politician who has managed to back the Bush administration's war in Iraq while not alienating the European leaders who opposed it strongly.
De Hoop Scheffer, 55, replaces Lord George Robertson, a Briton who is stepping down after a four-year term during which the organization's mandate broadened to include the war on terrorism.
Fluent in Dutch, French, German and English, de Hoop Scheffer helped develop a Dutch position on Iraq that supported the Bush administration without angering leaders like French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
"The way the Dutch comported themselves during and after the Iraq war was very effective," a senior NATO official said on Monday, adding that de Hoop Scheffer "was very forceful about healing trans-Atlantic rifts."
In January, midway through his 14 months as foreign minister, de Hoop Scheffer declined to sign a letter from Britain, Spain, Italy and five other European nations pledging support for President George W. Bush against Iraq.
"We ran the risk of deepening divisions rather than healing them," he said.
The Netherlands eventually endorsed the war politically while remaining militarily neutral, declining to send Dutch soldiers to fight alongside US and British troops.
After Bush declared an end to major combat in May, the Netherlands sent 1,100 soldiers to Iraq, but to a southern province where it was generally safer and where the soldiers could maintain a low profile.
De Hoop Scheffer's appointment on Monday was approved by all 19 members of NATO, including France and Germany.
"We think de Hoop Scheffer is the ideal person for the job," Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to NATO, said in an interview. "He has strong ties across the Atlantic to the US and Canada, but is also very well respected in Europe. He is a pragmatic person and he is a doer, and we know he'll be successful."
De Hoop Scheffer, who is to take office on Jan. 1, will be the third Dutchman to serve as secretary-general in the 54-year history of NATO. He takes over at a time when the alliance is struggling to redefine its role in a post-Cold War world that has seen NATO members increasingly at odds.
Making matters more complicated, NATO's responsibilities now include fighting terrorism and maintaining peacekeepers as far afield as Afghanistan.
Until recently, de Hoop Scheffer was a bit like NATO -- busy trying to redefine himself.
Faced with sagging popularity, he stepped aside two years ago as leader of the Christian Democrats, making way for Jan Peter Balkenende, who later became prime minister and called on him to be foreign minister.
Some skeptics worry that de Hoop Scheffer lacks the necessary experience to head NATO, but even they concede that he is a good listener and negotiator. He served as personal secretary to four successive foreign ministers before becoming a member of parliament.
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