The Foreign Service Journal, February 2005

Palestinian peacemakers for failing to disarm their vio- lent political rivals. Let us see whether Sec. Rice is brave enough to follow the two-state solution to its log- ical conclusion. Ability to mobilize resources is a test of leadership. Pres. Bush was effective during his first term in identi- fying special circumstances to excuse spending inherit- ed long-term capital — financial, military, diplomatic and moral — on what traditionalists might regard as the ordinary recurring expenses of America’s interna- tional stewardship. The State Department benefited from this willingness. Bush was less effective in assur- ing that those resources went to the purposes for which they were mobilized, such as Iraqi reconstruction. It is mathematically certain that this and the next administration will face massive budget shortfalls. Sec. Rice will come under pressure to divert resources des- tined for international assistance and global HIV/AIDS efforts to less enlightened goals. She should be aware, as she weighs her prospective place in the history books, that her first year in office may be America’s last oppor- tunity for a decade to buy the influence it desires over Third World social and economic decision-making. Using the Foreign Service Dr. Rice inherits a Foreign Service rejuvenated after more than a decade of substantial cuts. Hundreds of newly-minted young diplomats, patriotic, enthusiastic, remarkably diverse, many with native fluency in a for- eign language, are filling positions that in plusher times went to seasoned, cynical mid-career officers. Youthful energy can change the world. During their first four years, Rice and her president relied heavily on their intelligence briefers. Heavily scripted 40-minute meetings with awed foreign leaders are not an adequate corrective to the CIA’s inevitably jaundiced view of foreigners. Rice will marginalize herself quickly unless she revalidates the State Department as the source of reliable, unbiased and detailed information about the internal politics of for- eigners, information that (oddly enough) reveals them to be remarkably like ourselves. That insight is indis- pensable to effective diplomacy, but she will need to ask for it specifically and regularly. Loyalty is a virtue prized most absolutely by those with no other marketable virtue. Sec. Rice should pon- der whether the “Core Values” of the 2004 State Department Strategic Plan — “loyalty, character, ser- vice, accountability, community” — are really an improvement over the more self-confident values of 2000 — “impact, expertise, discipline, dissent, diversi- ty, partnership, commitment.” The State Department must fight and win occasional battles to protect the vital interests of our foreign allies against a destructive bureaucratic whim in Washington. Sec. Rice will be judged on her willingness to spend political capital in support of her “disloyal” department. Even if Rice proves a brilliant bureaucratic battler, U.S. policy will continue to be driven by domestic polit- ical factors more than by abstract notions of justice or rational calculations of national interest. America’s per- suasiveness is undercut by an interagency clearance process that resists balanced argument and is paranoid in its approach to classified information. Rote recita- tion of talking points is counterproductive unless the goal is the contemptible one of currying favor back home. Sec. Powell understood the utility of not insult- ing the intelligence of his own foreign interlocutors. Dr. Rice should have similar faith in the good sense of U.S. diplomats to craft arguments that will work in a local context. Last summer’s arrest of Don Keyser, deputy director of the State Department office in charge of Taiwan affairs, sent a chilling message that should be rescinded immediately. America’s unsung diplomatic asset is the fact that State Department employees are as diverse as the great country they represent. Every society, not only our own, has deep political cleavages. Today’s lunatic fringe will be tomorrow’s government, and the American superpower must have some minimum func- tional connection to every group that can help us or hinder us. America’s tolerance and diversity offer us — when we have the wit to seek it out — the wherewith- al to match every diplomatic circumstance. Under a president with less Manichaean instincts about the world, General Powell would have been a great Secretary of State. Dr. Rice understands her president’s instincts, and has built her success around them. Let us hope that, wrapped in the real-world expertise of the State Department, she will be a more influential advocate than her predecessor for weighing foreign policy risks and rewards by the only standard all Americans would accept: the long-term security and prosperity of the American people on a fragile planet. n F O C U S 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 53