The Hillary Clinton Doctrine: Tough, Decisive and yet Diplomatic

[SuperTrouper]

This is going to be interesting seeing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. No push over, tough, neo-con in language at times but yet determined to make diplomacy work but will not hesitate to recommend to the President the use of decisive and overwhelming force ("we will obliterate Iran"). A true chimera in political terms, unable to be pinned down by the Dems or by the GOP.

[karynnj]

1. ummm - I hope a lot of that neo-con like tough language was just politics

or that it is NOT Obama's true policy.

[SuperTrouper]

3. Hillary is a tough lady. And she has tough ideas and language. I think that at one

time she was a Goldwater Girl. Here is an article dated from 2000 about this fascinating woman.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2000/04/26/hillary.html

[karynnj]

6. She was a Goldwater girl in high school, but became a Democrat

in college - not an unusual pattern in the late 1960s.

I am not doubting her toughness - though I think she exaggerated it when running. There are few other ways to explain the Iran comment or the Bosnia story. In addition the policy will be set by Obama.

(I think HRC would not agree with the characterization of her as "neo-con" - even REAL neo-cons are running from that designation. I prefer many people to HRC, but I hate that characterization of her.

[Bad Thoughts]

7. Neocon vs Neolib

Denniss Ross, in Statecraft, makes an important point: both neoconservatives believe that force cannot be factored out of international relations. Where they differ is that neoconservatives believe that force itself can be transformative, whereas neoliberals recognize the problems that arise from applying force (disrupts alliances, must be followed by statebuilding) and that using force is messier when not met with other forms of diplomacy.

It's possible to keep up tough talk and embrace smart diplomatic objectives and tools. However, it is also a matter of how tough the talk is. Will Clinton say something must is imperative, or will she tell our allies that they are on the verge of irrelevance?

[IndianaJones]

2. the threat from Iran is grave and real and eliminating the threat should be a goal. nt.

[Thrill]

4. Israel is determined not to let them get a nuke

I expect they will attack Iran at some point on their own

[wyldwolf]

5. umm.. kind of like the Truman/Kennedy era, huh?

[Jennicut]

8. Hillary will use diplomacy. Its a cornerstone of Obama's philosophy

But I don't think Obama/Hillary/Biden are the types who would be afraid to use force if necessary. However, I doubt they would get into anything like Iraq. Bill Clinton used force in Somalia for peace keeping purposes though it blew up in his face, as well as in Iraq and Bosnia but it was very limited and small. No ground troops involved. Haiti was also kind of a mess. Clinton wanted to use force but no fully commit. I think Obama will be diplomacy first, force if we are attacked. Afghanistan is Shrub's war so we shall see what Obama tries to do with it.

[ClarkUSA]

9. She has/will have no doctrine of her own; President Obama will have her implement his FP doctrine

He made that clear recently. To paraphrase, he said he is the Change and that will include foreign policy.
At least there will be no more warmongering cries of "Obliterate Iran" from Hillary "Sniper Fire" Clinton...
another reason to bless the shrewd political sense of the PEOTUS.