I would'nt get all excited about this, the UK has had a drugs czar for ages. Not that it's made a blind bit of difference!

Dictionary Library > Words > Dictionary czar (zär, tsär)
n.
also tsar or tzar (zär, tsär) A male monarch or emperor, especially one of the emperors who ruled Russia until the revolution of 1917.

A person having great power; an autocrat: “the square-jawed, ruddy complacency of Jack Farrell, the czar of the Fifteenth Street police station” (Ernest Hemingway).

Informal. An appointed official having special powers to regulate or supervise an activity: a racetrack czar; an energy czar.
[Russian tsar', from Old Russian tsĭsarĭ, emperor, king, from Old Church Slavonic tsěsarĭ, from Gothic kaisar, from Greek, from Latin Caesar, emperor. See caesar.]

Metaphorical uses
Like many lofty titles, e.g. Mogul, Tsar or Czar has been used as a metaphor for positions of high authority, in English since 1866 (referring to U.S. President Andrew Johnson), with a connotation of dictatorial powers and style, fitting since "Autocrat" was an official title of the Russian Emperor (informally referred to as 'the Czar').

This use is not limited to statesmen, e.g. 'drug czar' for the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. agency against illegal narcotics, or "terrorism czar" for a Presidential advisor on terrorism policy.

Why no one wants to be Bush's war czar.
By Fred Kaplan
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Fifth, everyone (except maybe the appointed czar) understands all this from the outset—understands that the whole enterprise is a PR stunt to make the president look like he's trying to do something and to absolve him from blame after it's clear that even the wise outsider couldn't work miracles.

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