Clinton Hails New Era of Diplomacy

Hillary Clinton signalled her plans to take back power, authority and funds from the Pentagon as she was greeted by hundreds of cheering US diplomats on her first day as secretary of state on Thursday.In scenes of jubilation at the state department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom, Washington, she hailed “a new era for America” and an emphasis on diplomacy and development-an approach backed by Robert Gates, US secretary of defence.“There are three legs to the stool of American foreign policy: defence, diplomacy and development,” Mrs Clinton told her audience, which spilled over from the building’s cavernous main lobby. “I will do all that I can, working with you, to make it abundantly clear that robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America’s future.”After serving as first lady, senator for New York and presidential candidate, Mrs Clinton began her latest role in public life by grabbing hands and posing for photos, while inspiring her new employees with promises of a break with the ways of the Bush administration.“We are not any longer going to tolerate the kind of divisiveness that has paralysed and undermined our ability to get things done for America,” she said, in a reference to many diplomats’ complaints of being ignored by the previous administration. “We need to collaborate, and we need to have a sense of openness and candour in this building.”Her comments were warmly welcomed. “I feel like I’m a star-struck teenager-don’t you?” one diplomat said to her neighbour.And in introductory remarks, Steve Kashkett, vice-president of the American Foreign Service Association, hailed Mrs Clinton and President Barack Obama for having “decried the neglect that the foreign service and the state department as a whole have suffered in recent years”.He added: “No one knows better than the people in this room and our colleagues posted all over the world how true that is.” In a sign of the new administration’s focus on diplomacy, Mr Obama was due to call on Mrs Clinton at the state department later yesterday, together with James Jones, his national security adviser, just a day after Mrs Clinton had been confirmed and sworn in to her new post.Although some of the crowd compared Mrs Clinton’s reception to that of Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, her comments marked a break with the Bush administration, particularly the first term, when Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon largely marginalised Mr Powell’s Department of State.At her confirmation testimony last week Mrs Clinton set out the administration’s plans to shift back aid programmes from the defence department to the state department.Her goal is to align such support with diplomatic initiatives and, on occasion, make it conditional on other countries complying with US political objectives.“The disparity of resources is such that when you’ve got more than 10 times the resources going to the defence department than you have going to the state department and foreign aid, the defence department has been, in effect, recreating mini-state departments,” she told the Senate foreign relations committee.Diplomats complain that the Pentagon now controls a fifth of all US aid funds.Despite a tradition of turf wars between the Pentagon and the state department, Mr Gates himself has warned against the “creeping militarisation” of foreign policy, while caustically remarking that the US has more members of marching bands than foreign service officers.Mrs Clinton has emphasised that the new administration will tie aid in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to political conditions such as reducing sectarianism, fighting against corruption and moving against al-Qaeda.
By Daniel Dombey in Washington
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1dd5e25e-e8b3-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html
As in the days of Noah....