A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days: The Dream Team

Sections

Help

Frequently Asked Questions

The Dream Team

Posted by Pejman Yousefzadeh on Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 10:57:22 PM EST

Via Dan Drezner, I find that Foreign Policy is seeking names for a Dream Team on foreign and economic policy. This is the kind of issue I just can't resist writing about.

Secretary of State: Robert Zoellick. He is a hero of mine because he regularly wins Smartest Person in the Room contests, knows the ins and outs of the power culture both in Washington and overseas as well as anyone around and is masterful both on foreign and national security policy issues and economic issues--as evidenced by his current job as President of the World Bank and the fact that he has experience both in the Departments of Treasury and State. I wrote unstintingly in praise of Zoellick when it came time to fill the position of President of the World Bank and while I don't think anyone at the White House reads your humble blogger, I was and am glad that Zoellick got the post. Secretary of State is a natural fit for him and as someone loaded with the brains and the experience to succeed at statecraft, Zoellick would excel at Foggy Bottom.
Secretary of Defense: I am probably one of the few people who has a healthy respect both for Donald Rumsfeld--whose legacy may well be brighter than his detractors think it will be--and Robert Gates, who I think is doing a very good job in a very tough and demanding position. The office Gates currently holds is brutal and taxing even in peacetime. In wartime, the demands are almost inhuman, and yet Gates bears the demands well and with equanimity. He is a natural to remain as Secretary of Defense and one hopes that he will be able to in order to see the reconstruction effort in Iraq to success, as well as turning the military effort in Afghanistan decisively against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Secretary of the Treasury: Robert Portman is probably one of the smartest people you have never heard of. As a Representative for 12 years and as United States Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Portman has acquired a command of fiscal and monetary policy that is matched only by the likes of Bob Zoellick. Portman has engendered deep and lasting respect on both sides of the aisle and his intellectual and forensic skills are formidable enough to have made him the ideal sparring partner in debate preparations for Presidential candidates. Portman played the part of Joe Lieberman in Dick Cheney's debate preparations in 2000 and the real Lieberman turned out not to be nearly as tough to debate as Portman was in practice sessions. Oft-mentioned as an ideal Vice Presidential candidate for John McCain, Portman would bring to the job of Treasury Secretary a superior intellect, a collegial manner, deep and wide experience and a thorough knowledge of where the fiscal and monetary bodies are buried. In turbulent economic times, he would provide a steady and capable hand at the helm of Treasury.
National Security Adviser: John Negroponte would be ideal for this role. He has a great deal of experience in foreign and national security policy; serving as he does as Deputy Secretary of State and having served in the past as Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador to Iraq and as the first Director of National Intelligence. Negroponte is well-versed in many aspects of foreign and national security policy and knows how to make sure that the policy trains run on time and how to ensure that all policy options are made available to the next President. In particular, his experience as the first DNI gave him a chance to witness firsthand the many problems with the functioning of the National Intelligence Directorate and as National Security Adviser, Negroponte would be well-situated to recommend and help implement reforms that would bring about a genuine improvement in intelligence gathering, analysis and distillation for the purposes of policy formulation.
Director of National Intelligence: Per my comments in the Negroponte section of this post, you can tell that I don't think much of the recent intelligence reforms or the creation of the National Intelligence Directorate, which has only served to add layers of bureaucracy in the intelligence community without having fundamentally altered intelligence gathering, analysis and distillation for the better. Thus, I think that the intelligence community needs to have a sledgehammer taken to it and streamlined and reformed for the better. It's also important to show all and sundry that intelligence gathering, analysis and distillation ought to be a nonpartisan or bipartisan enterprise, so I recommend Sam Nunn for the job. He knows defense and foreign policy like the back of his hand and he would be an exceedingly tough customer towards anyone entrenched in the current bureaucracy who looks first and foremost to preserving his/her cushy position in the U.S. civil service--at the expense of doing first class intelligence work.
Ambassador to the United Nations: Bonus pick--I'd pick John Bolton for this role but he says that he doesn't want to go back to his old job. So why not pick Dennis Ross? Ross has worked both for Democrats and Republicans and indeed, was a close aide to Secretary of State James Baker. He has won a lot of respect for his dedicated work in seeking to bring about peace in the Middle East and has a very sophisticated view of the conduct of foreign policy in general and Middle East policy in particular. Ross could work successfully within the confines of the United Nations to tamp down anti-Zionist sentiment while at the same time helping bring positive pressure to bear on parties in order to help bring about a comprehensive resolution of disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In addition to the expertise he has built up regarding Middle East affairs, Ross is an old Soviet hand and got his start in policymaking dealing with the Soviet Union. He was responsible for bringing the Soviet Union on board for the prosecution of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91 and could call upon his knowledge and experience to help the United States deal successfully with the challenges posed by Putinian Russia.

< Yes! | The "People Who Remind Me Of Me" Voting Standard >

The Dream Team | 0 comments ( topical, 0 hidden)

Search

Login

Make a new account

Donate

A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days