The Next 100 Days of Hillary

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Newsweek online has an article discussing how due to the world financial crisis, foreign policy has not been front and center in the media, despite worsening situations in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and even Iraq. But that may be about to change:

“Thanks to the global financial crisis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has enjoyed something of a grace period over these first 100 days of the Obama administration. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has garnered most of the attention—and nearly all the criticism. That’s about to end. Now that the fog of economic catastrophe seems to be lifting—if barely—the outlines of a fairly grim foreign-policy landscape are becoming visible. And it is very likely that Clinton and her boss will be more occupied with the challenges abroad in the next 100 days than with the recession and crisis at home.

Clinton is expected to deliver a major speech, possibly next month, to outline the administration’s broader foreign-policy goals, according to administration officials. The aim is to build on dramatic new efforts at engagement with Iran, Cuba and the G-20 nations, to move past crisis management and set out a positive agenda. With the State Department at the forefront, the United States will seek reclaim leadership on everything from energy to global health to nuclear non-proliferation.” [emphasis mine]

One thing is clear, making diplomacy a central strategy in securing American interests abroad, is a refreshing change from eight years of neoconservative flights of military fancy and torture, which accomplished little in terms of making America safer- in fact, if anything, it has made us much less safe while making the Obama administration’s, and thus the Secretary of State’s, job much harder.

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