I’m still not enamored with Obama’s decision to retain Bob Gates as his Defense Secretary or his decision to hand the State Department over to Hillary Clinton. But I’m beginning to see some positives. Ever since John Foster Dulles resigned from office in 1959, the Secretary of State has, much more often than not, played second fiddle to others in foreign policy. In the JFK/LBJ era, Robert McNamara was dominant. In the Nixon era, Kissinger dominated the Secretary of State until he took the position over for himself. As a general matter, Republicans don’t trust the State Department and prefer to use the National Security Council, the intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon to make important foreign policy decisions.
Democrats are more culturally attuned to the State Department, but Carter and Clinton had weak secretaries. Hillary Clinton is not going to be a weak secretary. She is looking to expand the job and take over as much turf as possible. Ordinarily that might be a bad thing, but her power is going to be coming at the expense of the Defense Department (and to an indeterminate degree, the Treasury Department). Secretary Gates is voicing his support for an expanded diplomatic service, and his lame duck status and Republican roots make him institutionally incapable of competing with the former First Lady.
Why do I see this as good? Because it will mark a restoration of the State Department as the premier department of government. And that means that we won’t shoot first and ask questions later. It means we will put a kinder face forward to the rest of the world. It means that State Department will regain its morale and that they’ll be able to recruit the best minds. It’s just good overall.