Hagel Watch
In case you missed it, Hagel is back in play. Read Steve Clemons’s exchange with Senator Hagel this morning where he posed a direct question on Bolton’s re-nomination and Hagel responded that he’s still undecided. Given the content of Hagel’s speech to mark the 90th anniversary of the Brookings Institution, supporting Bolton’s nomination for the U.S. representative to the U.N. seems incongruent with Hagel’s enlightened foreign policy ideas.
Hagel went on in the Q&A to reaffirm his commitment to multilateralism and the United Nations when asked a question on U.S. policy towards Africa, particularly Congo, Sudan, and the Ivory Coast.
One of the points I made in my speech was that—in fact more than once if I didn’t totally bore you—the absolute necessity of alliances and relationships and I noted in the speech and in one of the questions answered about the United Nations. Well I believe the United Nations is as important today as it’s ever been. Even a great superpower, as I noted in my speech, as the United States, cannot unilaterally solve all the world’s problems. And we can’t engage everywhere on every issue. Therefore alliances, relationships, the United Nations, NATO, -- the African Union is a new example of what is going to be I believe an indispensable institution for the future of Africa…The strength of the multilateral institution is directly proportional to America’s influence.
Something Senator Hagel will have to explore in the days ahead is whether Bolton shares these same multilateral-leaning beliefs and commitments and whether--during his year at the U.N.--he has put them into practice.
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