No Dithering on Albright’s Itinerary

Because public relations is such an important part of modern diplomacy, not to mention contemporary government, President Clinton may have struck gold with Madeleine Albright, his secretary of state. Even if she turns out not to be a great innovator--and with only three years left in the service of a lame duck president, what realistic chance does she have?--she may become known as a great articulator of foreign policy. Indeed, based on her luncheon address Wednesday in Los Angeles, she seems to be gunning--at least rhetorically--for her own place in history as the great communicator of U.S. diplomacy.

Stopping off on her way to Malaysia where she will attend meetings of the regional forum of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, Albright laid out a world vision with particular emphasis on Southeast Asia. It was nicely tuned to the internationalist sensibilities of members of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the Pacific Council on International Policy who packed a downtown ballroom to hear her. Skipping rapidly across Europe and Africa, the secretary emphasized the problems of political instability in Cambodia, repression in Myanmar and the opportunities for America in Vietnam. And she proudly mentioned the announced intention of North Korea to enter into negotiations in New York--a potential diplomatic triumph for the Clinton administration.

In quick succession, she managed to come across as a bouillabaisse of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning symbol of Asian freedom; Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian deputy prime minister and enunciator of the new Asian-Western symbiosis, and Ron Brown, the late let’s-make-a-deal U.S. commerce secretary who believed in foreign policy salvation through world trade.

For all the brio--and her reminder that she is making her third trip to Asia in six months--her speech neglected any direct mention of Japan or China, when, of course, the hottest geopolitical issue in Asia may be the reformulation of the U.S.-Japan security relationship and the most significant planned 1997 event may be the long-expected trip of Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Washington this fall. As one puzzled Pacific Council member commented afterward, “Mentioning Asia without mentioning China is like writing Hamlet without the ghost.” In the question and answer session, however, Albright vigorously defended the administration’s engagement policy with China, in contrast to the seeming inconsistency of trying to isolate Cuba.

Other major themes also were omitted. Nothing about the potentially explosive issue of Taiwan or the creaky and aging leadership elite in Indonesia and surprisingly little on the current scary currency crisis sweeping across Southeast Asia. Instead, Albright chose to focus on the easy target of the horrific State Law and Order Restoration Council, the military junta in Myanmar (formerly Burma). She gave the audience the sense that ASEAN members were going to hear it from her for admitting Myanmar as a full member of the group. She may have a tense time at the ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, for if there are limits to her charm, they may be quickly reached when she tries to raise that topic. Asians are fed up with being lectured to by America.

I wish I could say that Albright gave one the sense that she has gotten her arms around the monster issues of Asia. She didn’t. But, substance aside, Albright’s style--direct, jaunty, seemingly colloquial--is refreshing, especially for an employee of the State Department. “We cannot sit on the sidelines [of world history] with towels over our heads,” she said, “or we will be known as world-class ditherers.” She clearly sought to leave the impression that this lady is not for dithering.