No more ‘Rice’ please…

We have had Condoleezza Rice for the past eight years and now the prospect of having Susan E Rice for the next eight is not very appetizing. Both have excellent academic credentials and both are politically deaf. When George W Bush took over as the 43rd President of the United States, National Security was not even an issue. The appointment of Dr Condoleezza Rice as the National Security Adviser was hailed as a smart choice. After all, there was always a Colin Powell to take care of things if something went wrong. How wrong we all were. Condi Rice not only screwed up big time but she hid the file on National Intelligence and never admitted her fault. Do we want to repeat the same mistake? Dr Susan Elizabeth Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, is a calamity in the waiting. Should Obama become the next President, Susan Rice is bound to get a cabinet position.

Susan Rice was born in Washington DC to Dr Emmett J Rice and Lois Dickson Fitt in 1964. She grew up in DC and attended the National Cathedral for Girls. She earned her undergraduate degree in history in 1986 at Stanford University. She became a Rhodes Scholar the same year and did her masters at New College, Oxford, in 1988. She completed her PhD in International Relations from Oxford in 1990. Dr Rice started her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in the early 1990s. In 1993, she joined the Clinton Administration as a Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security Council. She became a Special Assistant to the President in 1995. Susan Rice took over as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 1997 and served until the end of Clinton Administration. She is married to Ian Cameron, a TV producer, from Toronto, Canada.

Dr Rice is highly qualified to be the next Secretary of State or the National Security Adviser. That is her biggest problem. She has a perfect pedigree and that brings to her a natural arrogance of a highly qualified scholar. Too many academics have done great damage to America’s Foreign Policy as well as the national security. Susan Rice is a specialist in African Affairs and would therefore come in immediate conflict with the Chinese in Darfur, Sudan. She has no understanding of the ‘Muslim Sensibilities’ and therefore a potential trip-wire in the Middle-East. She is ill disposed towards Europe (excluding United Kingdom) and would isolate India. Rice is not interested in South America and would be a drag for WTO (World Trade Organization) and the Kyoto Protocol. Ironically she has a lot in common with Condi Rice.

Fareed Zakaria, the next United States Secretary of State?

Fareed Zakaria is a rare political talent, available to be the next United States Secretary of State. He is a moderate and therefore could serve either a Republican or a Democratic President. A qualified journalist, now a major TV talk-show host, Fareed is a best-selling author. A graduate of Yale, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. Fareed Zakaria is a soft-spoken, tough diplomat. He is politically well connected and yet very independent. Fareed wouldn’t be a political hack like the current incumbent.

The United States Secretary of State is the head of US Foreign Office (US Department of State). The Secretary of State is the highest ranked cabinet secretary and fourth in line of succession. The Department of Foreign Affairs was created by the Second Continental Congress, on January 10, 1781. George Washington reauthorized the Department on July 27, 1789 to be headed by a Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The first Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson.

The role of the United States Secretary of State has changed in the last 10 years. It has grown many folds and no individual with limited in-sight can handle such a complex assignment. The likes of Condoleezza Rice should never again hold such office. When she took over from Colin Powell in January 2005, it seemed so logical. Little did we know then that her only qualification was her loyalty to the Bush Family. She has proved to be such a political-hack that the next Secretary would have to do major repairs, internationally.