Paddy Ashdown, by all accounts, did a good job as administrator of Bosnia-Herzogovina from 2002 to 2005.
So why didn't Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai want him to take on a similar task in Afghanistan?
The feeling among the international community in Kabul is that it's a missed opportunity - a powerful character with a proven track-record who could unite the aid effort in a way most say is crucial.
But perhaps Lord Ashdown, who served as the UN's High Representative and EU envoy to Bosnia from 2002 to 2005, was just too strong a character in a place where the international influence is being perceived as strengthening with time, rather than giving way to the new Afghan institutions.
'Super' powers
President Karzai would not admit to feeling threatened by Paddy Ashdown - the two men met in Kuwait at the end of last year and the president was satisfied they could do business together.
But there was a sudden and unexpected change of heart - ministers had been worried he could come here as a 'Viceroy' with too much power, but that seemed to have been resolved.
The two issues surrounding his appointment were his personality and the terms of reference for his job.
Simply being headlined as a "super-envoy" was enough to suggest greater powers than his predecessor.
He would have had the same title, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative, and would not have "worn two hats - the other being Nato's International Security Assistance Force civilian representative, a job which remains vacant.
But there was an understanding he would have more sway with Nato and in European capitals, and that was perhaps too much for the Afghan decision makers to handle.
The fact he was seen as an Anglo-American appointee may also have played against him.