by Michael Cohen
There was a pretty interesting article in the Washington Post today about Hillary Clinton’s tenure at State Department and it pretty much confirmed my suspicions about our Secretary of State – she’s a great public diplomat and administrator, but not much of a strategic thinker.
As Stewart Patrick noted, she struggles with priorities and questioned whether she has a “grand strategic vision.” This was basically part of the deal when Obama picked her; Hillary would serve as a great “face” for America to the world; she would invest time and energy in public diplomacy, something that was critically important after the tumult of the Bush years. But at the same time it was hard to expect much from her from a strategic standpoint. After all, she doesn’t have an IR or even foreign policy background and doesn’t appear to have spent a lot of time thinking about the future of American foreign policy.
