State Department
22 January 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives at the State Department in Washington, DC, 22 Jan. 09 |
The new secretary of state said she will rely on the advice and expertise of the department's more than 20,000 foreign service and civil service employees as they jointly pursue the work of advancing U.S. national security, interests and values around the world.
Her remarks included no direct criticism of the previous Bush administration, but she also clearly suggested that President Barack Obama's team will be more welcoming of input from government workers, and less divisive.
"We want to send a clear and unequivocal message," she said. "This is a team and you are the members of that team. There is not anything that I can get done from the seventh floor, or the President can get done from the Oval Office, unless we make clear we are all on the American team. We are not, any longer, going to tolerate the kind of divisiveness that has paralyzed and undermined our ability to get things done for America."
Hillary Rodham Clinton being sworn in as secretary of state in her Senate office by Associate Judge Kathleen Oberly, 21 Jan 2009 |
In Senate testimony before her confirmation, she said she would work to build up the U.S. diplomatic corps as part of an exercise of "smart power" by the United States that leads with diplomacy, rather than the use of military force.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the lone cabinet holdover from the Republican Bush administration, is also a prominent advocate of such an approach.
To underscore the emphasis on diplomacy, President Obama and key aides are to visit the State Department later for a closed-door policy meeting with Clinton - to be followed by a presidential pep talk to staff members.