Analysis: Obama Foreign Policy Favors Diplomacy
The message was reflected clearly in Obamas decision, on his second full day in the White House, to close the military-run prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to include the State Department in a broad government study of how to proceed with terrorist detentions in the future.
In a subtler but equally telling way, the commander in chiefs decision to visit the State Department before stepping foot in the Pentagon indicated his intention to elevate the role of diplomacy.
Setting the stage for what amounted to Obamas first foreign policy address since his inauguration, Vice President Joe Biden told State Department employees on Thursday that Clintons charter is to “put diplomacy back in the forefront of Americas foreign policy,” and to do so immediately.
“For too long, weve put the bulk of the burden, in my view, on our military,” Biden said.
Obama put it this way: “A new era of American leadership is at hand, and the hard work has just begun. You are going to be at the front lines of engaging in that important work.”
Biden didnt say so, but it will be difficult to bulk up the State Departments capacity for stronger diplomacy.
The reality is that the Defense Department is vastly better equipped, with far bigger budgets, greater reach and a more committed constituency on Capitol Hill. Thus it often will be called on first to take the lead abroad, even if Obama manages to begin to shift the balance back in favor of the diplomatic corps.
One measure of the disparity: The military has more band members than the State Department has diplomats. Or as Defense Secretary Robert Gates has noted, the 6,600 people in the foreign service equal roughly the number of personnel aboard a single U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group at sea.
Against that backdrop, Clintons arrival at the State Department on Thursday was a feel-good moment for a diplomatic corps that felt neglected during the Bush administration. But she wasted no time warning all to temper their cheers with the sobering knowledge that the foreign policy road will be rough.
“I dont want anybody to leave this extraordinarily warm reception thinking, `Oh, good, you know this is going to be great,” she told a welcoming ceremony attended by hundreds of department workers. “Its going to be hard.”
That includes not only the Guantanamo Bay headache but also others that the president and secretary of state will be confronting in the weeks ahead, from the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace effort to nuclear dangers in Iran and North Korea.
In her caution against excessively high hopes, Clinton also cited her pledge to reinvigorate the State Department by grabbing more resources, expanding the diplomatic corps, widening the role of development aid and building a civilian capacity to work alongside the military overseas.
“This is going to be a challenging time and it will require 21st century tools and solutions to meet our problems and seize our opportunities,” she said. “Im going to be asking a lot of you. I want you to think outside the proverbial box.”
Unconventional approaches will be much in demand. But Clinton seems determined to begin with basics, such as bigger budgets, reclaiming some of the clout that the State Department has ceded to the Pentagon in recent years, and restoring morale in an institution that has been derided as idle and placid.
In remarks Friday, Clinton lamented the migration of funds and authority from the State Department to the Pentagon. She noted that young officers in Iraq and Afghanistan are given millions in cash to spend as they see fit to build a school, open a health clinic or provide other nonmilitary aid.
“Our diplomats and our development experts have to go through miles of paperwork to spend 10 cents. It is not a sensible approach,” she said.
Source: flpej
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