"I'm looking for a job!"
George W. Bush
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090222/ap_on_re_us/bush_store_greeter
Feb 23, 2009
Clinton Reshapes Diplomacy by Tossing the Script
February 21, 2009
Clinton Reshapes Diplomacy by Tossing the Script
By MARK LANDLER
BEIJING — On Friday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the picture of a stern superpower diplomat, warning North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile. A few hours later, she was asked by a giggly Korean student how she knew she had fallen in love with her husband.
“I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state,” Mrs. Clinton said with a smile.
Henry Kissinger, this isn’t.
On each stop of her Asian tour, Mrs. Clinton is redefining the job of secretary of state, fusing the weighty themes of regional security and nuclear proliferation with lighter encounters in which Mrs. Clinton is quizzed about her musical tastes or asked what it was like to raise her daughter.
She is also redefining herself to some extent. After going to Beijing in 1995 as first lady to deliver an impassioned speech on women’s rights, Mrs. Clinton has sidelined human rights on this trip, saying she does not want the topic to interfere with central issues like climate change or the economic crisis.
In Indonesia on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton appeared on a popular variety show, “Awesome,” on which she told the young host, somewhat sheepishly, that her favorite musicians were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. She politely declined to sing, saying it would empty the room.
None of this is especially new to Americans. But it is novel to people outside the United States, who expect foreign ministers to stick to a diplomatic script.
As she neared the end of her maiden voyage as secretary of state with a two-day visit to Beijing, Mrs. Clinton said she was determined to make a connection to people “in a way that is not traditional, not confined by the ministerial greeting and the staged handshake photo.”
“I see our job right now, given where we are in the world and what we’ve inherited, as repairing relations, not only with governments but with people,” she said to reporters on Friday.
To do that, Mrs. Clinton is exploiting both her megawatt celebrity and her training during the presidential campaign. On Friday, nearly 3,000 female students packed an auditorium at Ewha Womans University in Seoul to hear Mrs. Clinton deliver a speech that ranged from North Korea’s nuclear threat to the challenge women face in balancing work and family.
A standing-room-only crowd at the University of Tokyo listened to Mrs. Clinton discuss how the United States should rebuild its ties to the Muslim world. Toward the end, a nervous young woman, who said she played on a baseball team, asked Mrs. Clinton how to become as strong as she was.
“Well, I played a lot of baseball, and I played with a lot of boys,” she replied, to peals of laughter.
Mrs. Clinton said she was skeptical that these appearances alone would lead to changes in the policies of foreign governments. But by connecting with people on a personal level, she said, she believes she can help mold public opinion, which, in turn, can influence governments.
“President Obama has an extraordinary capacity to do that because of the really positive feelings that he personally engenders,” she said. “To a lesser degree, I have some of the same capacity.”
In a working-class area of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, a small crowd trailed Mrs. Clinton as she toured health and water-treatment projects financed by the United States Agency for International Development.
“People are very excited to see Hillary Clinton,” said Daniel Sitorus, 24, a lawyer in the neighborhood. “It doesn’t matter that she isn’t Barack Obama; she is one of the most famous women in the world.”
She is not just beguiling audiences. During her visit to Seoul, Mrs. Clinton raised eyebrows among journalists and analysts with a frank assessment of how a succession struggle in North Korea could undermine talks over its nuclear program. She said she was baffled by the reaction.
“I don’t think that it’s a forbidden subject to talk about succession in the hermit kingdom,” she said.
“Maybe this is unusual because you are supposed to be so careful that we spend hours avoiding stating the obvious,” Mrs. Clinton continued. “I think it’s worth, perhaps, being more straightforward, trying to engage other countries on the basis of the reality that exists.”
That said, Mrs. Clinton did reaffirm Friday that the United States would conduct negotiations with the government of Kim Jong-il “now, and for as long as he is the man calling the shots.”
And in a news conference with South Korea’s foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, she used time-tested diplomatic language in warning North Korea to stop its belligerence toward South Korea. “North Korea,” she said, “is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea.”
Mrs. Clinton, however, evinces little patience for running through talking points. In Beijing, for example, she said she would raise familiar issues with Chinese officials like human rights in Tibet, while she expected them to complain about American arms sales to Taiwan.
“We know what they’re going to say, because I’ve had those conversations for more than a decade with Chinese leaders,” said Mrs. Clinton, who first visited Beijing in 1995 for her speech on women’s rights and has written about how she made her Chinese hosts uncomfortable.
This time, however, she said human rights concerns should not derail discussions on big issues like the global economic crisis, climate change and North Korea. That has earned her sharp criticism from Amnesty International, which said Friday that it was “shocked and extremely disappointed” that human rights were not made more of a priority.
For all of her innovations, Mrs. Clinton’s schedule in Beijing on Saturday looks like that of any other secretary of state: meetings with President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other senior officials.
On Sunday, before she flies home, she plans to attend church services, a small gesture to religious freedom in a Communist society. But she said she did not want to make a big deal of it. “I’m going to be there on Sunday morning, and I thought I would go to church,” she said.
The newspaper article above comes from the New York Times website. It was posted on February 21, 2009. I believe that the article places the visit of Hillary Clinton to Asia in a new daylight.
I had the believe that the visit to Asia was based on the goal of sheer economic interests. I expected that making new arrangements between the United States and Asia was the main goal. The reason for this is that Asia is developing constantly and is becoming more and more a important economic part of the world. I personally expected that the visit of Hillary Clinton as being the secretary of state was focused on communicating with leaders of the diverse Asian countries. And by doing so coming to new contacts and contracts in favour of the United States.
The article from the New York Times however describes how Hillary Clinton is not only trying to enhance the contacts with foreign leaders. During her trip she made a number of visits to public places where ‘normal’ people could ask her personal questions.
It seems to me that Hillary Clinton has tried to get in contact with the locals and in this way gaining some sympathy under the people for herself but indirectly also for her country. The way Hillary Clinton dealt with a number of personal questions only confirms the feeling. She tried to make jokes and answered almost every question. By using this strategy she attempted to getting people to like her.
Another fact that the article mentions is that she was not afraid to criticise North Korea on their atomic program. The human rights in Tibet where alse mentioned several times.
The trip from Mrs Clinton to Asia appears to me as a success. However, I feel that it was well planned and coordinated and the main goal was to gain some sympathy from the Asian world and repair the image of the US.
The Taipei Times has a article on the same subject. For further readings: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/02/23/2003436777
Clinton Reshapes Diplomacy by Tossing the Script
By MARK LANDLER
BEIJING — On Friday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the picture of a stern superpower diplomat, warning North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile. A few hours later, she was asked by a giggly Korean student how she knew she had fallen in love with her husband.
“I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state,” Mrs. Clinton said with a smile.
Henry Kissinger, this isn’t.
On each stop of her Asian tour, Mrs. Clinton is redefining the job of secretary of state, fusing the weighty themes of regional security and nuclear proliferation with lighter encounters in which Mrs. Clinton is quizzed about her musical tastes or asked what it was like to raise her daughter.
She is also redefining herself to some extent. After going to Beijing in 1995 as first lady to deliver an impassioned speech on women’s rights, Mrs. Clinton has sidelined human rights on this trip, saying she does not want the topic to interfere with central issues like climate change or the economic crisis.
In Indonesia on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton appeared on a popular variety show, “Awesome,” on which she told the young host, somewhat sheepishly, that her favorite musicians were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. She politely declined to sing, saying it would empty the room.
None of this is especially new to Americans. But it is novel to people outside the United States, who expect foreign ministers to stick to a diplomatic script.
As she neared the end of her maiden voyage as secretary of state with a two-day visit to Beijing, Mrs. Clinton said she was determined to make a connection to people “in a way that is not traditional, not confined by the ministerial greeting and the staged handshake photo.”
“I see our job right now, given where we are in the world and what we’ve inherited, as repairing relations, not only with governments but with people,” she said to reporters on Friday.
To do that, Mrs. Clinton is exploiting both her megawatt celebrity and her training during the presidential campaign. On Friday, nearly 3,000 female students packed an auditorium at Ewha Womans University in Seoul to hear Mrs. Clinton deliver a speech that ranged from North Korea’s nuclear threat to the challenge women face in balancing work and family.
A standing-room-only crowd at the University of Tokyo listened to Mrs. Clinton discuss how the United States should rebuild its ties to the Muslim world. Toward the end, a nervous young woman, who said she played on a baseball team, asked Mrs. Clinton how to become as strong as she was.
“Well, I played a lot of baseball, and I played with a lot of boys,” she replied, to peals of laughter.
Mrs. Clinton said she was skeptical that these appearances alone would lead to changes in the policies of foreign governments. But by connecting with people on a personal level, she said, she believes she can help mold public opinion, which, in turn, can influence governments.
“President Obama has an extraordinary capacity to do that because of the really positive feelings that he personally engenders,” she said. “To a lesser degree, I have some of the same capacity.”
In a working-class area of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, a small crowd trailed Mrs. Clinton as she toured health and water-treatment projects financed by the United States Agency for International Development.
“People are very excited to see Hillary Clinton,” said Daniel Sitorus, 24, a lawyer in the neighborhood. “It doesn’t matter that she isn’t Barack Obama; she is one of the most famous women in the world.”
She is not just beguiling audiences. During her visit to Seoul, Mrs. Clinton raised eyebrows among journalists and analysts with a frank assessment of how a succession struggle in North Korea could undermine talks over its nuclear program. She said she was baffled by the reaction.
“I don’t think that it’s a forbidden subject to talk about succession in the hermit kingdom,” she said.
“Maybe this is unusual because you are supposed to be so careful that we spend hours avoiding stating the obvious,” Mrs. Clinton continued. “I think it’s worth, perhaps, being more straightforward, trying to engage other countries on the basis of the reality that exists.”
That said, Mrs. Clinton did reaffirm Friday that the United States would conduct negotiations with the government of Kim Jong-il “now, and for as long as he is the man calling the shots.”
And in a news conference with South Korea’s foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, she used time-tested diplomatic language in warning North Korea to stop its belligerence toward South Korea. “North Korea,” she said, “is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with the Republic of Korea.”
Mrs. Clinton, however, evinces little patience for running through talking points. In Beijing, for example, she said she would raise familiar issues with Chinese officials like human rights in Tibet, while she expected them to complain about American arms sales to Taiwan.
“We know what they’re going to say, because I’ve had those conversations for more than a decade with Chinese leaders,” said Mrs. Clinton, who first visited Beijing in 1995 for her speech on women’s rights and has written about how she made her Chinese hosts uncomfortable.
This time, however, she said human rights concerns should not derail discussions on big issues like the global economic crisis, climate change and North Korea. That has earned her sharp criticism from Amnesty International, which said Friday that it was “shocked and extremely disappointed” that human rights were not made more of a priority.
For all of her innovations, Mrs. Clinton’s schedule in Beijing on Saturday looks like that of any other secretary of state: meetings with President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and other senior officials.
On Sunday, before she flies home, she plans to attend church services, a small gesture to religious freedom in a Communist society. But she said she did not want to make a big deal of it. “I’m going to be there on Sunday morning, and I thought I would go to church,” she said.
The newspaper article above comes from the New York Times website. It was posted on February 21, 2009. I believe that the article places the visit of Hillary Clinton to Asia in a new daylight.
I had the believe that the visit to Asia was based on the goal of sheer economic interests. I expected that making new arrangements between the United States and Asia was the main goal. The reason for this is that Asia is developing constantly and is becoming more and more a important economic part of the world. I personally expected that the visit of Hillary Clinton as being the secretary of state was focused on communicating with leaders of the diverse Asian countries. And by doing so coming to new contacts and contracts in favour of the United States.
The article from the New York Times however describes how Hillary Clinton is not only trying to enhance the contacts with foreign leaders. During her trip she made a number of visits to public places where ‘normal’ people could ask her personal questions.
It seems to me that Hillary Clinton has tried to get in contact with the locals and in this way gaining some sympathy under the people for herself but indirectly also for her country. The way Hillary Clinton dealt with a number of personal questions only confirms the feeling. She tried to make jokes and answered almost every question. By using this strategy she attempted to getting people to like her.
Another fact that the article mentions is that she was not afraid to criticise North Korea on their atomic program. The human rights in Tibet where alse mentioned several times.
The trip from Mrs Clinton to Asia appears to me as a success. However, I feel that it was well planned and coordinated and the main goal was to gain some sympathy from the Asian world and repair the image of the US.
The Taipei Times has a article on the same subject. For further readings: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/02/23/2003436777
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