PrintNovember 16, 2004
Mandate for change
The reported appointment of Condoleeza Rice to the job of Secretary of State is yet another signal that President Bush plans fundamental changes in the way the government of the United States operates. The Department of State, like the Central Intelligence Agency, has long marched to its own drummer, often undermining or redirecting the policy initiatives it has received from above. Change is needed.
Colin Powell, an able and loyal Secretary of State, faithfully represented the institutional interests of the bureaucracy he headed, while working toward the goals his president gave him. But the entrenched bureaucracy, which spends most of its time seeking ways to work with (i.e., compromise with) foreign governments and international agencies, understands that Presidents (and Secretaries) come and go, but they and their international counterparts remain. Comfortable 'understandings' bind those representing us with those representing the agencies and governments with whom they deal....(Read Full Article)
