Masterful

Secretary of State-designate John Kerry was masterful today in his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing.  It wasn’t so much the details of what he said, but the breadth and depth.  This is a guy who really knows international affairs.

His prepared statement was notable for some high points:  the emphasis on the importance of American economic health in determining the country’s role abroad, the clarity about preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and the vigor of his defense of the State Department budget.  I would also note that John Kerry regards USAID, whose functions he mentioned but not its name, as an integral part of the State Department.

Then Kerry showed a lot of agility in dealing with not only the questions but also a demonstrator, expressing respect for her cries to be heard.  He defended Secretary of Defense-designate Hagel’s views on getting rid of nuclear weapons, which he said was an aspiration for a world different from the one we live in today.  He described his own changed view of Syria’s President Asad, whom he now hopes to see go soon.

He showed his clear commitment to maintaining the high priority Secretary Clinton has given to gender issues.  He was non-committal on the Keystone pipeline, deferring to the official process under way.  He was gentle with the Russians, citing their cooperation on particular issues (other than Syria).   He was supportive of American anti-corruption and human rights efforts abroad.  He showed he knows what is going on in Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces.  He parried accusations about Benghazi.

Of course part of the reason for this masterful performance is the attitude of the questioners, who showed enormous respect for their long-standing colleague.  Gone was the idiot questioning of yesterday’s hearing with Secretary of State Clinton on the Benghazi murders.  There was little “gotcha.”  Certainly had the President nominated Susan Rice, who is far more combative, the tone if not the substance of the hearing would have been different.  In a week’s time the Hagel hearing may be far more contentious, even if Hagel himself comes close to matching Kerry in knowledge and equanimity.

On Syria, Kerry advocated changing Bashar al Asad’s calculations, but he was unclear about the means to achieve that.  He wants an orderly transition.  The Russians appear willing, but differ on the timing and manner of Bashar’s departure.  Kerry fears sectarian strife, implosion of the Syrian state and what they might mean for chemical weapons.

The Syrian opposition has not been ready to talk, Kerry said.  In a sentence he struck–one of his few moments of hesitation in this long hearing–he started to say that we need to increase the ability of the opposition to do something unspecified.   I’d sure like to know how that sentence was supposed to end:  increase their ability to negotiate?  increase their ability to strike the regime militarily?  There’s a big difference.  It sounded to me more like he wanted them to be more flexible on negotiations, but I’m not certain.

Kerry hit a lot of other subjects.  On Afghanistan, he put his chips on a good April 2014 presidential election, which has to provide legitimacy to Karzai’s successor.  Kerry wants “a metric” for stopping infiltration and attacks on Americans from Pakistani territory.  He noted China is “all over” Africa (and America has to get into the game).  Al Qaeda has dispersed at the urging of Osama bin Laden and is now a threat in the Arabian Peninsula and the Maghreb, where the solution is not only drone strikes but (unspecified) civilian efforts.  We don’t like what Egyptian President Morsi says about Jews, but we need him to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.  On Israel/Palestine, Kerry was cagey and refused to be drawn out, except to reiterate commitment to the two-state solution.  The solution to climate change is energy policy, which will enable job growth.  The “war on drugs” is ill-conceived.  We need to do more on the demand side.

Here is the lengthy (four hours?) video of the hearing:

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