US to have multi-agency ties with emerging powers like India

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is set to reform US diplomacy by turning ambassadors into corporate-like CEOs tasked with establishing productive multi-agency relationships with emerging powers like India, China and Brazil.

The reforms at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, (USAID) “will fundamentally change the way we do business,” she said Wednesday releasing the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review that was two years in the making.

Clinton pledged to enhance America’s civilian power overseas, drawing from experts not only in the State Department but across the federal government. “At the heart of this effort will be our ambassadors and chiefs of mission, she said. “We will empower them and hold them accountable as CEOs of multi-agency missions.”

Clinton called the review “a blueprint for how our country can lead in a changing world through what I call civilian power.”

She said its goals include improving the State Department’s ability to defuse crises before they explode and enabling diplomats to be “the partner that our military needs” if violence does break out.

“Emerging powers and 21st -century centres of global and regional influence, including Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa and Turkey, define today’s geopolitical landscape,” the review noted.

While Washington will increase its “engagement with emerging powers and centres of influence, we will also deepen our longstanding US alliances and partnerships - Europe, Asia, and the Middle East- which will remain vital to helping secure and advance US interests,” it said.

“These countries, with whom we share a community of values, must be at the centre of our global cooperation to address shared challenges.”

“We are also enhancing our capacities to deal with the set of countries that are growing rapidly and playing more influential roles in their regions and in global affairs, such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey,” the review said.

“Through expanded bilateral consultation and within the context of regional and global institutions, we expect these countries to begin to assume greater responsibility for addressing the challenges facing their regions and the international system,” it said

The US goal, the review said, “is to establish productive multi-agency relationships with these emerging powers that encourage responsible international behaviour, that survive the times when we do not agree, and that enable us to continue working together on shared challenges.”

“We will do this by, first, strengthening our Strategic Dialogues with emerging centres of influence; second, deploying our personnel and resources to reflect these countries’ expanding roles in the world; and, third, engaging directly with the people of these nations,” it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)