Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hillary Clinton will give a series of policy speeches in the near future, but foreign policy will largely be excluded. According to Clinton advisers, she will not “focus on foreign policy in the coming months,” likely “devoting one speech to the subject”.
This is a curious development given Clinton served as Secretary of State for Obama’s entire first term, and because Clinton’s advisers reportedly point to her tenure as providing “credibility with voters on foreign affairs.”
But Clinton’s State Department was responsible for the botched Russian reset, which Clinton called a “brilliant stroke,” was seemingly voiceless during Iran’s Green Movement, refused to add Boko Haram to the foreign terrorist list, and failed to ever really pivot to Asia. In the words of her own senior staffer, Clinton was the “the public face of the U.S. effort in Libya,” a country that is now pulled between two governments, while simultaneously facing the threat of Islamic State.
These are just a few of the concerning choices made by Hillary Clinton’s State Department, but they make clear why Clinton would want to avoid defending her decisions as the nation’s top diplomat.