The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27 F O C U S O N T H E P O W E L L L E G A C Y A L EGACY OF S UCCESS he rumormongers were simply wrong. Secretary of State Colin Powell didn’t tender his resignation because Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wouldn’t play nicely with him in the foreign policy sandbox. Nor, con- trary to conventional wisdom, was he pushed out because he wasn’t hawkish enough (after 35 years of mil- itary service, he’s hardly a dove), or because he was a moderate square peg in a neoconservative round hole. He’s too big a man to knuckle under to such pressures. Powell was involved in plenty of heated — and, regrettably, well-publicized — disagreements over for- eign policy issues, particularly over the last couple of years. But he is leaving the Bush administration as the nation’s chief diplomat of his own free will after four incredibly busy years, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 67-year-old Powell has given the pres- ident his best advice and counsel during some of the most tumultuous times in recent diplomatic history, and now wants to spend more time with his family and earn some well-deserved retirement money in the private sector. Despite the largely negative speculation about his impending departure, the exceedingly popular Powell leaves behind a successful legacy as President George W. Bush’s first Secretary of State. He can take significant credit for developing — and maintaining — the interna- tional cooperation that has done so much to advance the global war on terror. He knows very well that (outside Iraq, anyway) most terrorists are put out of business not by military action, but by international law enforcement and intelligence cooperation spearheaded by deft diplo- macy. And without the diplomatic foundation provided by the State Department under Powell’s leadership, the international cooperation required to win the war on ter- ror would not be possible. Furthermore, Secretary Powell built the internation- al coalition that ousted the Taliban and al-Qaida from Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. His State Department deserves bragging rights for the recent suc- cess of Afghanistan’s first national elections, just three short years after the Taliban’s toppling. Moreover, Powell advanced American diplomacy in other parts of South Asia by reinvigorating our relationship with the nuclear-armed states of India and Pakistan. In particu- lar, his personal relationship with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf proved a tremendous asset in helping avert a war between the two nations in 2002 and in T C OLIN P OWELL HAS SERVED THE NATION WITH HONOR AND DISTINCTION IN ALMOST EVERY NATIONAL SECURITY JOB OUT THERE . H IS TENURE AT F OGGY B OTTOM IS NO EXCEPTION . B Y P ETER T.R. B ROOKES