The Surprise of the Obama Administration
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is breaking every frequent-flyer record with his visits to the region, particularly to Jerusalem and Ramallah. Kerry is the surprise of the second Obama administration. He manages diplomacy aggressively, while still in full coordination with Barack Obama. Together, they have developed a new doctrine for U.S. foreign affairs — "diplomacy first."
When the world expected American military action in Syria, Obama and Kerry turned to the Russians in order to reach a diplomatic solution to the issue of chemical weapons. The agreement, which was in fact written to Assad, began a process of disarming Syria of chemical weapons. No military attack would have achieved this.
Kerry also turned to collective diplomacy on the issue of Iran. Together with the P5+1 club, the U.S. signed the Geneva Interim Agreement as part of an extended diplomatic process in order to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. In the wake of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kerry, like his president, reached the conclusion that there is not much value in war in today's world because it is difficult to physically overpower even weak nations, and because it is possible to realize strategic goals, particularly by means of collective diplomacy. The U.S. is leading, but it is not alone, and it is responsible to be coordinating diplomatic processes with the European Union, Russia and China. This is how the sanctions regime against Iran was born. Kerry has been discovered as a virtuoso of new collective diplomacy. This is how he is also operating regarding the peace process in our region.
In the last 30 years, in my work alongside Shimon Peres, I had the opportunity to get to know and work with six secretaries of state. Three were Republicans — George Schultz, James Baker and Colin Powell — and three were Democrats — Cyrus Vance, Warren Christopher and Madeline Albright. All of them were active at different levels in the peace processes in the Middle East.
http://watchingamerica.com/News/231054/the-surprise-of-the-obama-administration/
