Emigre From State Dept., Haass Still a Partisan of Coalitions

As the State Department’s top policy wonk, Richard N. Haass clashed frequently with the right wing of the U.S. foreign policy establishment.

A veteran of four administrations, Haass, a moderate Republican, found himself counseling caution on the use of military force and advocating international coalition building on hot-button issues such as Iran and North Korea. In the internal debates on foreign policy that have roiled the Bush administration, Haass served as the intellectual counterweight to the Defense Department’s hawkish Deputy Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz.

Haass, 51, recently resigned his post and began work last week as president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, arguably the nation’s most influential foreign policy think tank. He plans to continue pushing his internationalist view from outside the administration. A replacement for Haass at State has not been named.

“My own strong bias is toward a foreign policy that is ... multilateral, to use the M-word,” Haass said in an interview in Washington last week. “I can’t think of anything in the world we can do better by ourselves than we can do with others. To be fair, the administration does involve others, and it does use other tools besides military force. But like everything in life, it’s a question of proportion.”

Haass cited the resumption of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the notable improvement in U.S.-China relations over the past two years and the building of American ties with both India and Pakistan as the most positive developments in U.S. international relations under President Bush.

But the administration should put a “greater emphasis on partnerships” in global affairs, he said, and should attempt to negotiate deals with Iran and North Korea to rid them of any nuclear weapons.

Haass, who remains a special U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, declined to criticize the Bush administration. He rejected the idea that much of the United States’ current difficulty in its occupation of Iraq stems from launching an invasion with a coalition built outside the United Nations umbrella after the Security Council refused to approve the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein.

However, the lack of international consensus, Haass said, has made other nations reluctant to sign up for peacekeeping duty.

“When you do things largely on your own, like we did in Iraq, you deny yourself a safety net and there is less margin for error,” he said. “But I’m still not sure what’s key here. I think a lot of our current problems have to do with the fact that we planned for the wrong aftermath,” preparing for humanitarian crises and refugees instead of the looting and sabotage of infrastructure that has occurred.

Haass briefly worked under Wolfowitz at the Pentagon during the Carter administration, and the two have known each other for years. But they have waged tough intellectual and bureaucratic battles about the scope and purpose of American power, with Haass the standard-bearer for the Republican traditionalist or internationalist view of foreign policy and Wolfowitz the visionary of the neoconservatives.

Haass by no means shrinks from the exercise of U.S. power. In 1997, he published a book about American foreign policy titled “The Reluctant Sheriff” in which he envisioned the United States as a global sheriff aided by a posse of willing nations. In a speech a year after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he reassessed that stand.

“We now understand that even if we choose not to engage with the world, it will engage with us, and not always in welcome ways,” he said. “If I were writing the same book today, I’d describe the sheriff as considerably more resolute.”

However, as an advocate of coalition building and putting more pressure on Israel to bring it into peace negotiations, Haass also drew scorching attacks from some conservatives. Upon his resignation in June, a Washington Times editorial branded him “one of the worst offenders” at a State Department whose diplomats have “repeatedly and consistently undermined President Bush.”

Haass parried probes about his frustrations with the administration, saying, “To quote that famous British philosopher Mick Jagger, ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ ” However, he believes that the government includes powerful advocates for a wider range of foreign policy views than was present in the Carter, Reagan or first Bush administrations, in which he also served. Haass said the situation in the Middle East now offers the best chance for peace since President Clinton’s failed summits. “There is a degree of ripeness there that hasn’t been for years,” he said.

Haass said the Bush administration should consider -- with Russia and Europe -- engaging Tehran in a diplomatic process to wean Iran from its nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

The U.S. also should attempt to “smoke out” North Korea’s intentions by making a proposal to Pyongyang for dismantling its nuclear program. “We might just strike an acceptable deal,” Haass said. “Even if we fail, the sheer fact that we tried will make it less difficult to manage the consequences,” he said. “It’s important to show we explored every diplomatic option.”

For the U.S., real partnership with other countries will have to entail sharing authority, not just burdens, Haass said.

“If we want others to provide large numbers of police, if we want others to open up their checkbooks, we are going to have to share decision making to a greater degree.... That’s the trade-off,” he said. “If we want to keep a near-monopoly on the decision making, we are going to have to expect that very few others are going to avail themselves of the opportunity to serve without a voice.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Richard N. Haass

Education: Haass, 51, holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. A Rhodes scholar, he earned both his master’s degree and doctorate from Oxford University.

Career: A moderate Republican foreign policy expert, Haass has served in four administrations and recently resigned as the State Department’s director of policy planning. He now serves as president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Family: Haass, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., is married with two children.

Quote: “If we want others to provide large numbers of police, if we want others to open up their checkbooks, we are going to have to share decision making to a greater degree.... That’s the trade-off.”

Sources: State Department, Los Angeles Times