Hardline US policy looms

2004-11-16 21:25

Washington - The nomination of Condoleezza Rice to become the new United States secretary of state could mean a hardline foreign policy - but one likely to be closer to White House thinking after the divisions about Iraq with Colin Powell in charge.

President George W Bush nominated Rice on Tuesday to move from national security adviser to secretary of state in one of the biggest changes of his new term.

But experts and the US media have emphasised the differences in style, temperament and political leanings of the new secretary of state and her predecessor.

Both have made landmark strides for American-Africans in the US government, but the similarities end there.

Rice, a 50-year-old high-flying academic with an outwardly stern allure, is close to Bush, who has led a go-it-alone policy in key areas such as Iraq.

Powell, 67, is a retired four-star general who prefers a diplomacy mixing alliances and negotiation.

Signalled her strong support

Bush said in nominating Rice that she would take office "at a critical time for our country" as it tries to sort out Iraq and fight the war on terrorism.

And Rice, with Bush at her side, signalled her strong support for the actions of the first Bush administration.

"Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror," Rice said.

"You have marshalled great coalitions that have liberated millions from tyranny, coalitions that are now helping the Iraqi and Afghan people build democracies in the heart of the Muslim world.

"And you have worked to widen the circle of prosperity and progress in every corner of the world."

'Even more assertive and aggressive'

Experts said major changes in style now loom.

Jon Wolfsthal, a foreign policy specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, said: "Colin Powell was the only real voice of moderation in the first Bush term.

"His departure suggests US foreign policy will be even more assertive and aggressive, if for no other reason than the advocate for traditional foreign policy will no longer be heard," said .

Rice's nomination "will probably mean more coherence in foreign policy, but at the expense of more traditional foreign policy values."

With Powell's departure, there is no longer a moderate voice among the key foreign policy figures in the administration.

But Powell was also a popular personality at home and abroad at a time when the United States struggled to persuade allies to give support over the invasion of Iraq.

Rice will have to work hard to reach the same status, experts said, and this might mean she struggled to make her voice heard in the cabinet.

"I think that just as she, to some extent, was overshadowed at the NSC by Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell, she may remain in a somewhat lesser position in the cabinet as a whole," said Charles Kupchan, an expert at the council on foreign relations.

- AFP