Updated
With one simple word and some much craved attention from its President, American diplomacy has suddenly roused from a long and depressive slumber.
That word is "swagger" — an expression of springy, boundless, confidence — which the once-proud US State Department has hobbled along without for the last 15 months.
Swagger is both a commandment and an aspiration of America's 70th Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, for the more than 60,000 diplomats and civil servants he now leads.
"I want the State Department to get its swagger back," Mr Pompeo enthused in a brief speech soon after his ceremonial swearing-in.
"We need our men and women out at the frontlines executing American diplomacy with great vigour and energy and to represent the finest nation in civilisation."
The occasion was orchestrated as pure theatre, but marked a sharp turning point for a dispirited foreign service which almost forcibly sleepwalked through the opening phase of the Trump administration.
Gathered at State's bunker-like headquarters, the Harry S Truman Building, the most senior practitioners of American statecraft suddenly bore witness to two new phenomena: a President interested enough in their work to come and say so, and a Secretary interested enough in them to tell them so.
Remarkably, but yet consistent with his general foreign policy posture, Mr Trump had never ventured into the Truman Building in the entire time his first appointee, Rex Tillerson, had occupied the Secretary's seventh floor office there.
Now, Mr Trump with his Vice-President Mike Pence stood before the senior leaders of American diplomacy, soaking up their applause for him and basking in their apparent admiration for Mr Pompeo.
The lift in mood was palpable and the President read the "vibe" of the room in an instant.
"I must say that's more spirit than I've heard from the State Department in a long time, many years, maybe many decades," Mr Trump noted — oblivious to the fact he'd never placed himself in a position to gauge their collective spirits before.
Perhaps the restoration of a little swagger is explained by dual conditions of the human spirit; the dogged belief that things can hardly get worse in adversity and an ingrained sense of "duty" among the long-suffering employees who've felt stunted and constrained for 15 months.
In a rare interview given to CBS's 60 Minutes shortly before his abrupt sacking earlier this year, Mr Tillerson had been confronted about the torpor gripping his $US50 billion department.
At the time, more than 40 US embassies — including Canberra — were without ambassadors, senior desk positions in Washington DC remained empty and a creeping set of restrictive rules undermined morale of the thousands who were serving abroad.
"Well, there's been no dismantling at all of the State Department," Mr Tillerson said.
"We've got terrific people, both foreign service officers, civil servants, that have stepped into those roles around the world.
"It's not a question of people … neglecting the importance of it. It's just the nature of the process itself."
Pompeo has the confidence to revive State Department
Mr Tillerson was a Washington stranger who fell hostage to its processes, lacking the political skills and relationships to negotiate his way out.
His replacement has no such handicaps.
In a barely concealed swipe at his predecessor's invisibility at the department's headquarters, Mr Pompeo has told his colleagues at State and in Congress, "I will spend as little time on the seventh floor" (as possible) and that he aims, "to be the diplomatic face that achieves the outcomes America so desperately
needs to achieve in the world".
Mr Pompeo embodies the assertive, even arrogant, gait with which he wants US diplomacy to move around the globe.
A leader at the Military Academy West Point, an army tank platoon captain, a Harvard lawyer and a Republican Congressman for Kansas, his background and uncompromising approach to conservative politics made him an early Trump favourite and a polarising figure on Capitol Hill.
The President's faith was first shown with the 54-year-old's appointment last year to run the CIA, and was repaid by Mr Pompeo in Easter this year as Mr Trump's hand-picked emissary to the Korean Peninsula for secret talks with Kim Jong-un.
Sagacious or swaggering — the test for America's diplomats
Leadership, pride and confidence might give US diplomats a pep in their step but Mr Pompeo should not be under any illusions about the dangers of 15,000 foreign service personnel aggressively reasserting America's place in the world.
The Trump administration's foreign policy is truly cutting-edge stuff and Mr Pompeo might be well advised to heed the sober judgements of the career professionals schooled in making them.
North Korea is a case in point.
No-one in Washington's strategic or foreign policy — let alone London, Paris, Beijing, Seoul or Canberra — had foreseen the rapid thaw in relations that's come with Mr Trump's sudden embrace in March of Mr Kim's invitation for a summit.
With each passing day, the President — and to a lesser extent Mr Pompeo — is investing ever more hope in the gamble for an enduring peace with a Korean dictator Mr Trump seems to believe is an honest broker.
"Right now we have an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the Korean Peninsula," Mr Pompeo told the gathering at the Truman building.
"Our eyes are wide open. It's time to solve this once and for all.
"A bad deal is not an option — the American people are counting on us to get this right."
Harnessing the outpouring of goodwill among his staff, the Secretary stressed, "when I say we're going to do this, I mean 'we', this is a team effort at the State Department and all of the United States Government".
Whether on the Korean Peninsula, in the Middle East or the Far East, the many risky foreign policy plays the Trump administration is rehearsing will most certainly rely on an engaged and enthusiastic US foreign service to see them through.
Mr Pompeo has breezily secured their support.
The bigger danger of his tenure is, will the Secretary or his President in full flight of "swagger" pause to heed any counsel of caution their diplomatic advisers happen to offer them?
That will take some "spirit" from within the State Department — but not of the kind Mr Trump marvelled at in his brief and rapturous visit to its Washington headquarters.
Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, donald-trump, united-states
First posted