Making the State Department Great Again

October 3, 2018

Daniel DePetris makes a decent case at the National Interest that Mike Pompeo is doing a pretty fair job of bolstering the State Department:

On making the State Department great again, Pompeo is well on his way. He promised to inject some excitement back into Foggy Bottom’s ranks, pledging to senators on the Foreign Relations Committee that he would freeze any further job cuts and begin recruiting the best and the brightest into the diplomatic service. Pompeo pledged to the State Department workforce that he would bring swagger back to the diplomatic community, all the while assuring his new employees that their contributions to U.S. security were highly valued. During his first speech on the ground floor, Pompeo lauded those around him as “ patriots and great Americans ” who will no longer be shut out or dismissed by the senior leadership.

Whereas Tillerson had a terrible relationship with Trump, at one point calling him a “moron” behind his back, Pompeo was able to gain the trust and confidence of the Commander-in-Chief during his previous stint at the CIA. Moreover, Pompeo’s personal ties with the president were a boon to the State Department’s institutional weight in the national security decision-making process; Foggy Bottom’s recommendations were no longer brushed aside as inconsequential.

Mr. DePetris is correct, however, that no amount of bolstering can make up for bad policies. G. K. Chesterton, always a good hand at turning a phrase, would have said that anything not worth doing is not worth doing well.

However, his closing observation does raise an important question. What administration has actually solved more national security problems than it created? I think you have to go all the way back to the Eisenhower Administration for that.

6 comments… add one
  • TarsTarkas Link

    So far, ISIS has been reduced to JV status (if not benchwarmer), NK hasn’t shot off any missiles lately and seems to be willing to think about nuclear disarmament, the tyrants of Iran had their precious nuclear agreement ripped up and thrown in the faces and now they’re facing setbacks in Yemen as well as an increasingly restive population, the war in the Ukraine and the chaos in Libya don’t seem to be getting any hotter, and Raul Castro’s foothold on the mainland of South America is dissolving under his feet (thanks to Maduro & Co., not Trump). And we’re not two years into this administration. I know that Afghanistan is still a quagmire, China is still squatting on the Spratleys and elsewhere, and South Africa seems to be descending into a full-blown thuggish kleptocracy, among other problems, but if this is Trump making things worse internationally, I’ll take some more.

  • steve Link

    “ISIS has been reduced to JV status “-Mostly done before Trump took office.

    ” NK hasn’t shot off any missiles lately and seems to be willing to think about nuclear disarmament” – Need to wait and see. Nothing really accomplished yet as they are still building nukes.

    ” Iran had their precious nuclear agreement ripped up”- Best nuclear agreement we ever negotiated. At least our allies are going to stick with it.

    Add Syria to your quagmire list.

    Steve

  • Andy Link

    The thing about cause-and-effect in foreign policy is that the effect can come years after the cause. We’re only now beginning to understand the effects of Clinton’s foreign policy, so we won’t know the full story about Trump for at least a decade or two.

    Anyway, as a military guy, I fully support a strong and resourced State Department. Jaw Jaw is better than spilling blood and treasure.

  • Ben Wolf Link

    And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit….

    [America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

    .

    I’ll take President Adams over the supposed “swagger” of Pompeo through Fart Pit (prettier and more accurate than Foggy Bottom.)

  • Guarneri Link

    “Best nuclear agreement we ever negotiated.”

    Reminds me of the senator who said “I believe Ford because she’s telling the truth.” Alrighty then…. I can’t wait until the next investment committee meeting. ‘We should do this deal because it’s going to work out just swell.’

    “ At least our allies are going to stick with it.”

    For crass commercial reasons…..

  • steve Link

    The deficiency in the deal according to the Israelis, and they are really dictating to the GOP who then tell Drew what to think, is that we did not permanently take away nukes from Iran, and we didn’t get the right to inspect anywhere, anytime w/o notice. IOW, Israel wanted the right ti spy upon Iran. We have not done deals that I am aware of that are permanent. Instead this deal got rid of their plutonium and the large majority of their uranium. It let us inspect more than we have in other deals.

    Oh the irony of a Romney supporter complaining about crass commercial reasons, but it was those same reasons that pushed towards closing the deals. China was already moving in. Russia too and heaven knows if the Germans weren’t really cheating. When there is money to be made, you aren’t going to maintain sanctions forever.

    Steve

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