US Senator John Kerry, selected by Obama for US Secretary of State job
US President Barack Obama has nominated Senator John Kerryto succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, calling him “the perfect choice to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead”.
John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 27 years and chaired it since 2009.
His nomination has been a foregone conclusion since United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice took herself out of consideration earlier this month after she was accused by Republicans of misleading the public about the circumstances surrounding the attacks on the American embassy in Benghazi, in which Washington’s ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy officers were killed.
Rice and Kerry were reportedly the only two people being considered to succeed Clinton, whose tenure was marked by seemingly unrelenting overseas travel and a strong emphasis on building transnational partnerships on global issues, notably women’s empowerment, climate change, education, health and engagement with civil society.
Clinton is also credited with restoring the State Department’s status, in part by prioritising “smart power” over the “hard power” favoured by the Bush administration.
Kerry first burst into the public spotlight as an articulate spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He was elected to the Senate in 1984.
He has defended the Obama administration’s policies and has occasionally carried out specific diplomatic missions on the its behalf. Where he has differed from Obama on foreign policy, he has done so privately.
In his new role, Kerry is expected to be very much a “team player” who will faithfully carry out orders from the White House where national security adviser Tom Donilon and his deputy, Denis McDonough, are likely to continue dominating policy-making in Obama’s second term.
Under the Bush administration, Kerry voted for the resolution that gave the President the authority to invade Iraq, although like Hagel he quickly became a critic of the war.
His general foreign policy views largely echo Obama’s. “If there is such a thing as a Kerry Doctrine, it is a clear-eyed willingness to pursue engagement and test the intentions of other countries, even present and former enemies or difficult partners on the world stage,” wrote his biographer, Douglas Brinkley, on the foreignpolicy.com website Friday.
In addition to his expertise on Southeast Asia, Kerry is said to have “amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East” and “was the first senator to call for President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to step down”.
In 2009, Kerry travelled to Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, suggesting on his return that Assad was a “reformer” who could be weaned from his alliance with Iran. He has since called for Assad to step down and supported the administration’s measures to achieve that goal.
In introducing Kerry at the White House, Obama stressed the senator’s views about US military power. “Having served with valour in Vietnam,” Obama said, “he understands that we have a responsibility to use American power wisely, especially our military power.”
President Obama however, has offered no hints as to whom he will pick for the rest of his national security team, including replacements for Pentagon chief Leon Panetta and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director General David Petraeus (retired), who resigned abruptly last month in the wake of reports of an affair.
The White House reportedly intended to announce its picks for all three posts on Friday but backed off.
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