By Dov Zakheim
No one can accuse Hillary Clinton of not being well-prepared; her testimony in that regard was masterful. But testimony is at best nothing more than a statement of intent, a "vision statement," as it were. The real test will begin on January 21, when the new secretary of state has to face wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis in Gaza -- and perhaps Lebanon, a North Korea seeking to bamboozle yet another administration; and a turbulent Mexico whose troubles have been ignored for far too long. And that's for starters.
One measure of the new secretary's management abilities will be the way she handles the plethora of special advisors and envoys, with whom she is about to surround herself, which were a mark of her husband's administration. A goodly number of these envoys harbored their own dreams of top administration jobs, including perhaps, hers. How might a special envoy for Iran, interact with another for the Middle East, and yet another for Afghanistan and Pakistan? Iran is certainly part of the Middle East, and has far more influence in western Afghanistan than is often realized. Will the Iran envoy set priorities for the other two special representatives? And will they agree to those priorities? And how will this bevy of envoys affect State Department morale, and efficiency? The secretary-designate wants diplomacy to be more virile, but will it be focused as well?
We have to wait and see...
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