Quickie: The Super Sub-Secretaries of State

NYT’s Thomas L. Friedman in his op-ed piece on February 28, talked about the A-list special representatives and envoys who are supporting Secretary Clinton in State’s push for new diplomatic engagement. He noted that today’s world is divided between “the regions of order” and “the regions of disorder,” and the regions of disorder are big enough and disorderly enough that they each require their own super sub-secretary of state to manage the chaos and mobilize the coalitions.

“So George Mitchell is, in effect, “Super Sub-Secretary of State for Nurturing a Coherent Palestinian Authority and a Coherent Israeli Negotiating Position So That the Two Might One Day Be Able to Strike a Deal Again.” Richard Holbrooke is “Super Sub-Secretary of State for Bringing Coherence to the Afghan and Pakistan Governments So That They Can One Day Be Internally Stable and United Against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.” And Dennis Ross is “Super Sub-Secretary of State for Amassing Global Leverage on the Incomprehensibly Byzantine Iranian Government So That It Will Terminate Its Nuclear Weapons Program.”

You can read the whole thing here but I could not resist the paragraph above – I’m quite charmed by Friedman’s creative titles for the new special envoys/representative.


Well, aren’t you? But he's in trouble now. I think Hillary has said somewhere that she may appoint a few more. So Friedman may have to come up with a few more titles before this is over.