Llewellyn
King
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December 11, 2008
Obama’s Foreign Policy Cocktail
Here in Washington, we
were just settling down for the enervating business of projecting the
future from the first tranche of President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet,
when an ill wind from Chicago reminded us that all politics is human,
and that political success does not equate to wisdom or simple common
sense. Also, it reminded us that we love to see politicians fall.
The allegations against
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have diverted even the most serious policy
wonks from their ruminations. But this will pass, and most likely
Blagojevich will go to his disgrace. The wonks will go back to puzzling
how Obama’s foreign policy appointments will work together, or who will
work against whom. It is not titillating, but it is engrossing.
Which brings the
subject to Hillary Clinton, Obama’s pick for secretary of state.
What makes Clinton
tick? Why would a woman who has been a successful lawyer, the first lady
of a state, the first lady of the United States and a successful U.S.
senator want more? Her ambition is Napoleonic, vaulting and
incomprehensible. Those who are not addicted to the narcotic of power
cannot understand it any more than we can grasp what drives Rupert
Murdoch, the most successful publisher in history, to expand his empire
at the age of 77, when he might reasonably be expected to be enjoying
his family and reveling in his achievements.
But Clinton’s ambition,
together with her husband’s position in the prompter’s box, does not
auger well for harmony in foreign policy. First, there is National
Security Advisor-designate James Jones to consider. He will see the
president every day and, unlike Clinton, does not have to preside over
the management of the State Department with its 50,000 widely scattered
employees. More, he is fresh out of his Marine general’s uniform, and
generals have more difficulty than most in accepting orders.
Then there is the
possibility of a three-way struggle between Clinton, Jones and Susan
Rice, nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
She was an assistant secretary of state in the Clinton Administration
and signed on early as an adviser to Obama. She did not throw her weight
behind Hillary – and the secretary of state-designate notices things
like that.
Foreign policy is not
just caught up in a triangle of strong egos. There is another player –
the vice president. Joe Biden has made foreign policy his area of
expertise for many years, serving on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and traveling widely. Biden is not malicious, but he is
garrulous and wont to say things he wished he had suppressed. Loose lips
in the veep’s office could be a nightmare for all concerned, especially
Clinton.
Clinton, herself, has
one other problem – her husband. The former president made a speech in
Hong Kong, after his wife had accepted the job of secretary of state. If
this is not a conflict, it is at least a possible harbinger of things to
come. Awkward things.
Obama’s chief of staff
Rahm Emanuel may be called upon to keep the peace, but he has baggage
too. He is known to be abrasive and to have strong ties to Israel, where
he served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Gulf war. Obama might
want to keep Emanuel out of foreign affairs even if, as chief of staff,
he is forced to keep the peace between the super-egos. Of these, Rice is
the gentlest, but she will have to answer a lot of questions about the
Rwanda genocide during her Senate confirmation hearing. She was on
Clinton’s Africa team at the National Security Council during the
genocide. As they say, it wasn’t our problem, but it will force Rice to
answer hard questions about the slaughter now taking place in Darfur and
eastern Congo.
Clinton herself is
smart and energetic, but if she has diplomatic skills, she has not used
them to date. In China, I watched her lecture women on becoming lawyers.
The women, who had expected somebody more sympathetic, looked at her
agog. Few of them probably knew what a lawyer was, and Clinton clearly
had not bothered to find out what was on their minds. Not a good
beginning.
The sorry thing is that
it will be years before we know how well the Obama foreign policy team
meshes – before the books are written and memoirs lift the curtain.
© 2008 North Star
Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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