The Foreign Service Journal, March 2003

F O C U S O N P O W E L L uesday, the 21st of January, 2003, was a very cold day in Washington D.C. Around 2:00 p.m. a bunch of journalists gathered outside the State Department, waiting on Secretary of State Colin Powell and his guest. Everybody was wearing a coat, a hat, a scarf, and gloves; and everybody was dream- ing of a very short ‘stakeout’ of the two ministers. Finally they came: Secretary Powell and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, paying his first visit to his colleague. A whisper spread through the journalists: Powell had no coat; he was wearing only a jacket, and so was Frattini. I felt terrible for Foreign Minister Frattini. But the Italian minister, a man from the North and from the mountains, was as brave as the American general: they made a statement; they answered a few questions; they shook hands; and their ‘stakeout’ was gone … in an icy breeze. One hour and a half of a warm meeting behind closed doors and 15 minutes of physical perfor- mance side by side in the cold had shaped a new friendship: later, speaking with the Italian press, Frattini described the relationship as one of mutual sympathy. There is in Europe a wide- spread feeling: without Colin Powell, at the outset of President’s Bush administration relations between the United States and the European allies would have taken a turn for the worse in an even more bitter way than they have recently. Secretary Powell has been an antidote for European doubts and worries concerning a new U.S. foreign policy that was difficult to decipher and prone to feed fears of a new isolationism. A well-known and respected man, Powell is a reassuring and indispensable reference point. As time went by, the secretary of State confirmed him- self as an interlocutor capable of transmitting Washington’s inputs and of receiving the messages of America’s partners and allies, even when — as in the case of Iraq — differences and doubts persist. Because Europe is divided, American policy is perceived in a dif- ferent way in each country. An Indispensable Reference Point From an Italian — or gener- ally European — point of view, Powell represents an American story of success. He embodies the values for which America is regarded as an example. In his life one can find many elements of the American myth so often described in movies still loved by European audiences: the boy of modest origins who makes a name for himself by dint of his qualities and his will; the soldier who acts with firmness and resolve, but also does everything possible to protect the life of his men and hold collateral damage to the minimum; the diplomat who listens to his partners before deciding, without ever betraying his principles. T T HE A NTIDOTE FOR E UROPEAN D OUBTS & W ORRIES A S E UROPE ADJUSTS TO THE POST -C OLD W AR WORLD AND A U.S. FOREIGN POLICY THAT ALTERNATELY TROUBLES AND BAFFLES , P OWELL HAS BEEN A REASSURING FIGURE . B Y G IAMPIERO G RAMAGLIA M A R C H 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 37