NEWS ANALYSIS : State Dept. Without Baker Resigned to a Lower Profile : Diplomacy: Major policy initiatives are unlikely, but his successor may stress some neglected areas of world.

In the elegant, antique-lined executive suite on the State Department’s seventh floor, an unusual silence reigns. All along the main hallway, lined with oil portraits of 19th-Century diplomats, office after office stands empty, abandoned by James A. Baker III and his top aides for the more pressing business of George Bush’s reelection campaign.

After three years of running America’s foreign policy through a tight-knit inner circle of political appointees, Baker has abruptly left the State Department in the hands of career bureaucrats--something the Foreign Service has long asked for but never expected to see.

“It’s wonderful,” one middle-level official exclaimed in exaggerated exhilaration.

But the joke may be on the bureaucrats, for Baker’s decision to leave the building to them only formalizes a fact that has been creeping up on the State Department for months: In an election year dominated by domestic issues, foreign policy has abruptly dropped to second rank.

In the hands of Acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, a widely respected veteran of more than 30 years in diplomatic service, the State Department’s professionals may win more leeway, but they are unlikely to see any new initiatives or dramatic moves.

Eagleburger noted candidly last week that his mission is more defense than offense: keeping American diplomacy afloat with no unpleasant surprises while Bush and Baker concentrate on the President’s reelection campaign.

“My objective is to keep things on as even a keel . . . as I can,” he told reporters as he flew in the secretary of state’s official jet to London for a meeting on the war in the Balkans. “I am not here to try to establish parameters for the foreign policy of the United States between now and the end of the century.”

For analysts of American diplomacy, that is both good news and bad news.

The good news, they say, is that Eagleburger may pay more attention to parts of the world that were relatively neglected by Baker, who tended to concentrate on a few crisis points like Russia or the Middle East.

“One of the criticisms of Baker’s style--qualified, of course, by the fact that he accomplished a great deal--is that he was not always aware of issues that were bubbling up that were likely to cause trouble . . . , issues like Iraq or Yugoslavia,” said David D. Newsom, a former undersecretary of state who now teaches diplomacy at the University of Virginia. “I’d guess that Larry will be more attentive to the warning signals.”

The bad news, they say, is that his mandate is so limited and could lead the United States to miss opportunities to make progress on Baker’s old strong points, Russia and the Middle East.

“Baker was probably the person in the Administration most committed to helping Russia, and he had the ear of the President,” said Dmitri Simes, a Russian scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Without his pressure, it isn’t clear that the Administration will follow through with its program” for economic aid to Moscow.

“The other area he needs to keep his eye on is the Arab-Israeli peace talks,” an Administration official said. “That’s an achievement that could slip away if Baker doesn’t stay involved.”

Arab and Israeli delegations opened a new round of peace talks at the State Department last week, but for the first time Baker and his top policy adviser, Dennis B. Ross, weren’t involved. They were both at the White House trying to whip Bush’s campaign into shape, Baker as chief of staff and Ross as the new domestic policy chief.

Likewise, Robert B. Zoellick, Baker’s key diplomatic strategist on issues from the reunification of Germany to aid for Russia, was wrestling with the federal response to Hurricane Andrew.

“Baker is clearly acting as chief of staff now,” a White House official said. He said the former secretary of state had found little time to weigh in on the Middle East talks or the Yugoslav crisis, even if he had wanted to.

Instead, the Arab-Israeli talks were handled by Edward P. Djerejian, the assistant secretary of state in charge of the Middle East. Under Baker, regional assistant secretaries of state disappeared into obscurity, but officials expect Eagleburger to give them more responsibility.

Eagleburger himself went to the London conference on the Balkans and by all accounts played a central role alongside more senior officials like British Prime Minister John Major and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev.

Along with 30 years’ experience in diplomacy, Eagleburger comes to his job with an important political asset: the confidence of Bush, Baker and White House National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. Eagleburger and Scowcroft worked as assistants to Henry A. Kissinger in the White House of President Richard M. Nixon two decades ago, and they have been friends ever since.

It remains to be seen how influential Eagleburger will be with Baker still at Bush’s side in the White House. “Larry was never quite in Baker’s inner circle,” one former official said.

As one early sign, Bush made room on his schedule Friday for a meeting with Eagleburger on the results of the Balkans talks; Baker attended as chief of staff.

Eagleburger is not expected to spend as much time traveling as Baker did, aides said. The rotund, chain-smoking diplomat suffers from asthma and myasthenia gravis, a muscle disease; he often uses an oxygen inhaler and walks with a cane because of a knee problem.

He spent his first week on the road, in London; but unlike Baker, he chose not to fly overnight, and he did not seek out any more challenging destinations to add to the trip.

Along the drab hallways of the State Department’s lower floors, a general sigh of relief was heard last week, as in a schoolroom after the departure of a respected but unloved principal.

“There’s a comfort level with Larry Eagleburger that we didn’t have with Baker,” one career officer explained. “Everybody knows him. He’s one of us. He’s one of our best.”

One reason for Eagleburger’s popularity, diplomats say, is that he always insists on the professionals’ right to contest their superiors’ decisions, as long as they carry out Administration policies loyally.

Eagleburger himself is well-known for his blunt warnings and salty language when he thinks his chiefs are going in the wrong direction.

Last week, he even managed to speak with understanding of George Kenney, an officer on State’s Yugoslavia desk who resigned and publicly blasted the Administration’s policy on Bosnia as a failure.

“You have to have a great deal of sympathy for an officer who has spent hours every day dealing with what is clearly a very terrible and messy situation,” Eagleburger said. He said Kenney’s call for U.S. military action in the Balkans was a prescription for a Vietnam-style quagmire but never disputed his right to make his protest public.

Baker and his spokeswoman, Margaret Tutwiler, were rarely so charitable to their critics. “I have never seen a State Department in which the tolerance of expressions by people other than the secretary was so low” as under Baker, Newsom said. “I think that will change under Larry.”

Eagleburger added one more new item to State’s public face: a wisecracking, often self-deprecating sense of humor. Asked by a reporter how he planned to run the department, he replied: “Badly.”

And in the clearest sign of its new, more-relaxed style, the State Department issued new customized luggage tags for passengers on Eagleburger’s plane to London. The tag featured a caricature of a fat man in a three-piece suit with a briefcase, standing in front of Big Ben--the new acting secretary of state on his first official trip.