Powell prefers career diplomats

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 23. The U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, started his first full day in office by telling foreign and civil service employees of his department what they wanted to hear - that he would fight for funding and would rely on more career diplomats.

``I want you to know that I will do everything I can to give you what you need to do to make sure that all of the units that we have around the world doing the people's business get what they need to do that work,'' Gen. Powell said.

For someone known to prefer to leave ``battalion commanders'' in their place, Gen. Powell appears to have struck the right tone with career foreign service officers when he argued that the new team of the Bush administration was not exactly going to replace everything of the past and that political appointees would be kept to a minimum - a point the new Secretary of State made during his confirmation hearings at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

``We figured we were inheriting a group of distinguished professionals in the foreign service, civil service and the foreign service nations who work for the U.S. Government and what we had to do was to understand what you have done so successfully over the years, let you know that there will be consistency; there will be some coherence in foreign policy, but also let you know there will be changes.''

Bearing on South Asia

Gen. Powell's remarks on retaining foreign service professionals in senior positions could have a bearing on South Asia as well, where a search is on for a successor to Mr. Karl Inderfurth, former Assistant Secretary of State for the region. One of the contenders is Mr. Mathew Daley, veteran South Asia hand currently in the Policy Planning Division of the Department.

Media reports have it that the Bush administration has offered the number-two slot - Deputy Secretary of State - to Mr. Richard Armitage, a former Pentagon official close to Gen. Powell. The former Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs, Mr. Armitage, is being tapped for his expertise on East Asia, notably Japan.

At one time, the number-two slot was primarily for administrative purposes. This changed during the Clinton administration which had Mr. Strobe Talbott, a close friend of Mr. Bill Clinton, and it appears the position is slated to retain its status under the Republican regime.

In a meeting on Monday with two former Chiefs of the Japan Defence Agency, Mr. Armitage apparently suggested the Bush administration would seek to strengthen its alliance with Japan to deter China's use of force against Taiwan. Mr. Armitage has been quoted as saying that if Japan on its own dropped the constitutional ban against collective self-defence, the United States would be ready to support it.

One other speculation is that Mr. Richard Haass, presently the Director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, is moving over to Head the Policy Planning Division. Mr. Edward Djerejian, once tipped to get the number-two slot, is being considered for other high positions such as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Mr. Djerejian is a former ambassador to Israel and Syria and also the last Assistant Secretary of State for the combined bureau of Near East and South Asia.

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Section  : International
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