Hillary Consulted Republicans, Neocons, And Liberals For Big Foreign Policy Speech
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has consulted with a surprisingly diverse ideological bunch in the course of creating the major foreign policy speech she plans to deliver tomorrow, including Republicans like Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and George Schultz, and onetime neocons like Francis Fukuyama, a source familiar with the speech-writing process tells me.
Hillary is set to deliver her high-profile speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, and is set to articulate her own policy agenda, one focused on strengthening America’s “smart power,” according to The Politico. It could help settle whether she has privately favored a more hawkish stance towards hostile foreign powers, as she reportedly has.
The array of people she has consulted for this speech is striking in its diversity, boasting a notable array of Republicans, foreign policy “realists” and hawkish voices. A partial list:
Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s secretary of state; George Schultz, Reagan’s secretary of state; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s hawkish “realist” foreign policy adviser; Paul Farmer, a doctor and international humanitarian; Joseph Nye, a major proponent of “soft power,” the idea that persuasion and attraction can be more effective than coercion; Francis Fukuyama, who helped drive the rise of neoconservatism; Brent Scowcroft; the “realist” national security adviser under George H.W. Bush; Strobe Talbott, Clinton’s deputy secretary of state; John Podesta, the head of the liberal Center for American Progress; and Richard Lugar, the Republican Senator who has praised Obama’s response to the Iran crisis.
Hillary has also consulted with administration figures like President Obama himself, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and national security adviser James Jones.
Obviously there’s someone here for everyone, and someone here for everyone to dislike, too. The array of people she consulted strongly suggests that she views the speech as an extremely important moment for both the Obama administration — and for her own tenure.
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Glad to hear she consulted with the president. Seems like a good move. Fukuyama helped fuel the rise of neocons, but he jumped off that train a while ago. If she were talking with Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle, I’d start to worry.
jmundstuk — good point re Fukuyama. In fact as Ben Smith notes there are no neocons or Bushies (Bush II, that is) on the list.
Chomsky,Zinn?
So, she consulted everyone from Fukuyama (reading anything this guy says makes me pass out) to Lugar and Brezezinski to Podesta. What is wrong with listening to all opinions, learning from them? Why is this news? Journalists whose conclusion and actions are less consequential listen to both sides of any story. Right? I hope you do Mr. Sargent.
John Paul, I don’t think my piece was critical. In fact, it was simply taking note of the wide diversity of opinion she solicited. Not sure where the criticism here is.
This sort of inclusive “let’s hear from lots of divergent, smart voices” has been a hallmark of Obama’s process. As I’ve noted before, it was a process that Paul O’Neill brought with him to his post under Bush but which was one of the key things that got him ousted by Cheney. It is the only way to go and bravo to everyone who has the courage and integrity to put their own ideas and preferences and egos at risk in this manner.
Ithink that once the President, Gates and Jones were consulted, all the other names really make it sound as if SOS is doing her best to make sure her speech will have some impact. It is US policy that is being enunciated, not that of the Democratic Party.Good for her.
I was rather struck by Tina Brown stupid snarkiness. I generally think well of her stuff but the Daily Beast has been removed from my “to read”ist because it has too many clowns masquerading as writers.
Alan
Many long-time New Yorker fans such as myself found Tina’s tenure there an unhappy event. Keillor left the magazine soon after her arrival and wrote some rather biting commentary on the dear lady.
A lot of those are ‘former’ neocons. A VERY important distinction.
Secretary of state Clinton should have consulted a couple of people that spring to mind
1) Tariq Ali : specialist on India, Pakistan and the Middle East
2) Helmut Schmidt : on U.S Europeen matters
3) Daniel Cohn_Bendit: on the impact of politics on world environment
After that she will be all set.
Bernie, did it ever occur to you that perhaps appearing to “let’s hear from lots of divergent, smart voices” is mostly for appearance which means that responding positively to senisible things heard that are contrary to the “program” is not very likely. Call me a cynic, but I think it’s all about posturing for political purposes and he’s one of the besty at it. There’s no risk in that for him and if Cheney responded to O’neill as you said, he was an idiot.