Senator Hilary Clinton and the State Department

Senator Hilary Clinton has been making news about how she plans to shape up the Department of State. According to reports in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/politics/23diplo.html?_r=1&hp), she plans to seek more money for the diplomatic corps. The military, according to the report, is delighted :

For years, some Pentagon officials have complained that jobs like the economic reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq have been added to the military’s burden when they could have been handled by a robust Foreign Service.

“The Pentagon would like to turn functionality over to civilian resources, but the resources are not there,” the official said. “We’re looking to have a State Department that has what it needs.”

And apparently, some of the blame for the current problem seems to lie with former Pentagon resident, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and even "the intelligence agencies" :

The steps seem intended to strengthen the role of diplomacy after a long stretch, particularly under Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in which the Pentagon, the vice president’s office and even the intelligence agencies held considerable sway over American foreign policy.

In their search for a story--" the blame," --the important point that the authors miss is that it will take more than one single agency in this complex world to solve problems. The Pentagon will most likely be involved in economic reconstruction somewhere in the world at any given point, regardless of what the Treasury or State Departments are doing because the economy in question is embroiled in some kind of armed conflict. Under NSPD-44 the Dept of State has the lead, and of course it therefore needs to have more resources, for responses to complex emergencies. But the newsworthy point here is that all agencies will work together as we go forward. The media could help shape the public and political understanding were they able to better describe this sea change.

Happy Holidays!