As you know, I prefer to post travel plans when these trips are announced officially, but there are many reports from disparate foreign sources, all unconfirmed as yet by the State Department, that Mme. Secretary will be heading to Africa imminently on a trip that is expected to last about a week. Countries mentioned so far include Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa – in no particular order that we can be sure of until DOS confirms the trip.
Some of us joked that she may have been taking notes, as some of us were, during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, naming countries she has yet to visit as SOS. Clearly, on the past few trips, she has made what appear to be farewell visits as Secretary of State (India, Israel for example), but also added in a country or two she had not been to, e.g. Laos. In my database of her State Department travels I find no record of visits to Senegal, Malawi, Ghana, or Uganda. While the countries differ, this trip will be reminiscent of her first State visit to Africa in August 2009. Nostalgic.
Still4Hill 
I think she’s trying to touch base with a few more countries before she retires. It’s like an extended farewell tour.
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“Farewell tour”. I’m already starting to feel nostalgic.
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I thought I had said that above. Clearly it’s a farewell voyage – the last trip was, too as well as the one before. She is adding new countries in as she goes, because she wants to make contact with them, but you can bet these were her last to Cambodia, Israel, India, Vietnam, etc. unless a conference or summit takes her back. This this it – last 5 months – farewell visits.
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Sorry for parroting you.
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No problem. It’s very nostalgic. When I saw her with Peres two weeks ago the whole history of her as SOS with Peres hit me. It was clear that she was there for a formal farewell – same as in India in May and Japan last month. Then I saw Mitt with Peres and it was a kind of premonition of the next SOS – whoever it is – there at that house with Peres – they will never have the relationship she has built with him and other leaders. It doesn’t matter which party and whose SOS it is – no one will be able to duplicate what she has done.
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I really am not concerned thatthe next SOS doesn’t do things “the Hillary way”, but I am worried that her sucessor will prove either unable or even unwilling to build off of what she’s accomplished.
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That’s what I meant. If you don’t do it the way she has done it, countries and civil societies within them will once again fall into that feeling of neglect by the U.S. that she so successfully dispelled. There IS no other way to follow up successfully.
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I think one could build off of her work without mimicking her style and I don’t think countries should expect Hillary Clinton Diplomacy – fueled by decades’ long ties and long running friendships – out of every Secretary of State that comes along. A former two term first lady, two term senator, and former presidential candidate whose husband now runs one of the most influential NGOs in the nation, if not the world, is a rather unusual resumé and yields a uniquely well connected Secretary of State in a global sense. That is not vital but frequent, frank communication is, as you eluded to.
My fear is that our next Secretary of State will be unable to devote the proper attention to these communication necessities or, more unsettlingly, will reject most communication in favor of the us-versus-them, go it alone, “cowboy” stylings of the past.
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. .. or ignore her rather frequent comment that despite the available technology, face-to-face is what counts with people. That is what fuels her travel record and her schedules abroad. I don’t think that happened because she is a former FLOTUS and senator. I think it happened because of what she understands about people. She is well connected and did the job she has done BECAUSE she understands that – not because of former roles she has played. Her successor should take a lesson.
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I believe the relationships she developed as a first lady and a senator helped her greatly and gave her an advantage when dealing with some foreign leaders. (I also think it hurt her with Netanyahu, who didn’t get along with her husband or his administration in the 90’s.) It usually takes a while to build those relationships, but she’d been there and done that years ago. It was like she’d taken a AP course in Secretary of State-hood.
That all said I think her understanding of how to deal with people and groups is the result of her considerable skill as a politician and as a policy maker. That is something her successor could and hopefully will take note of along with her observation that emails and Skype just don’t cut it some times. I hope these lessons are learned, but I have seen nothing to make me confident of that.
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Arguably, the next SOS should have SOME of that advantage as well – i.e. should not be NEW to foreign policy for heaven’s sake. It should be someone already acquainted with many foreign leaders. It may appear she had that AP course, but the next one also should have that. It’s part of the requirements for applying as it were – the “earned Ph.D.” part.
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They most likely will have a bit of experience, but the travels of a first lady and those of a congressional delegation have a different atmosphere to them. I think a first lady meets with people on a more personal level since they feel like they sort of know her (even though they don’t) because they know her by name an so on. It’s a closer connection than one with one random senator out of a group that’s on the government equivalent of a field trip. Kerry looks like he might be being groomed for the post, but I can’t imagine him getting this kind of welcome…
or this…
or this.
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The first and third are different from the second. He really didn’t know her before. Peres and the Irish have a long history with her (and WJC). NONE of them would greet Kerry that way (I agree – I think SHE is grooming Kerry) or Rice (whom Obama might be considering) for that matter. But, I mean, LOOK at her! There just isn’t anybody else out there like her!
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I thought she loved her country. Why then would she be setting up Senator Eeyore to represent us to the world?
As to that second photo, while President Correa didn’t know her personally, I’m sure he still felt he “knew” her in the same way that people all over the world feel they “know” her because of her international celebrity. That leads to a more personal interaction. (The way she was looking at him might have helped, too.)
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I’m just judging from the fact that she had him do the keynote speech at this year’s Chiefs of Missions Conference – as if introducing them to their next boss.
That whole series of pics with Correa was like a mutual admiration society of two.
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Hugs to Hillary!!
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Yes, always!
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