Sec. Hillary Clinton Sweeps Asia

While the Obama White House and Washington generally is mired in complex debate over health care reform, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just taken Asia by storm.
Secretary Clinton’s sweeping summer tour across the vast region, ending this week at the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit in Phuket Thailand, is undeniably a success in public relations and policy terms. Since diplomacy is inextricably tied to politics, especially when the diplomat is also a politician, she has succeeded in terms of American domestic politics as well.
North Korea obligingly helped draw global attention to the trip with harsh and unintentionally humorous commentary describing her variously as a “funny lady”, “primary schoolgirl” and “pensioner going shopping”. This was in response to her public emphasis on U.S. policy of mobilizing international pressure to rein in the increasingly isolated surviving Communist regime, including her complaint that the North Korean leaders are like immature unruly children.
At the Summit, Secretary Clinton signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, inspiring ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan to praise a positive “shift in strategy” by the U.S. toward the regional trade organization. The treaty actually is a general and essentially symbolic document, but that is an important dimension of diplomacy, and such gestures by the Obama administration automatically generate praise in the aftermath of Bush unilateralism.
China signed the treaty in 2003, and Sino-American relations provide context for the Clinton expedition through Asia. Pressure from Beijing has been crucial to the little flexibility recently displayed by Pyongyang. North Korean freighter Kang Nam 1, believed to be carrying contraband cargo to Burma, recently turned back after generating global headlines. China’s hand has been evident pressuring Pyongyang on this matter and others.
Inevitably, Clinton’s trip and wider foreign policy role resonates in U.S. domestic politics. President Obama regularly refers to his admiration for Abraham Lincoln, who appointed political rivals to his own Cabinet. William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, had been a strong contender for the Republican presidential nomination. This practice, however, has not been typical of modern presidents.
Since World War II, only three other U.S. Senators have served as Secretary of State, James Byrnes in the Truman administration, John Foster Dulles in the Eisenhower administration, and Edmund Muskie in the Carter administration. Byrnes’ service reflects continuation of pre-war practice, Dulles was appointed to fill an unexpired term and defeated in the election, and Muskie was picked by a beleaguered president desperate to improve rapidly deteriorating Congressional relations.
Obama deserves credit for courage as well as collegiality in picking Clinton for the job, especially given the intense, at times bitter character of their competition for the Democratic nomination in 2008. The President initially has divided top diplomatic responsibilities. Vice President Joe Biden led the U.S. delegation to an important European security conference in Munich, Germany and is generally very visible on the international stage. Special emissaries to deal with Afghanistan-Pakistan, Israel-Palestinian and other matters further hedge Secretary Clinton’s role.
On this Asia trip, and more generally, Hillary Clinton demonstrates she has done serious homework, is well briefed and articulate. A brief flap regarding her statement on Iran’s nuclear program reflected Israeli overreaction more than a truly serious diplomatic misstep. In an era of global interdependence and integration of societies as well as economies, a very smart domestic politician so far is providing very effective leadership of American foreign policy.
Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin and author of ‘After the Cold War’ (Macmillan/Palgrave and NYU Press). He can be reached at acyr@carthage.edu