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.
