What will hillary clinton do after secretary of state

Is the secretary of state, above all, the guardian of our constitutional values against foreign infringement? Is she a global figure whose job is to promote the global good?

Or is she a manager, the vice president for global affairs, so to speak, of USA Inc.? Clinton's accomplishments at the State Department combined shoring up venerable institutions with creative exploration of new tools and authorities -- returning U. But her grade on those accomplishments depends very much on which scale the grader is using. Damn straight, Mr. At the Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton made the case for his wife as a "change-maker, " an activist champion at home and abroad.

For decades, international relations departments and popular biographies have taught a single view of what a secretary of state's leadership looks like: This establishment image, still held by many in both parties, treats the post as a kind of a shadow U.

Read More. Left and right disagree on what should be done with all that power: Make peace in Syria; create a viable Palestinian state. Solve climate change; defeat terrorism. Do trade deals; undo or re-do trade deals. And above all, do it by using your larger-than-life persona to marshal all the resources of the U.

An alliance of true limited-government conservatives think Rand and Ron Paul supporters and nationalists who are fine with big government as long as it serves narrowly defined American interests think Trumpistas' enthusiasm for Medicare, wall building and torture has effectively sidelined most GOP supporters of activist leadership. What holds these two groups together is their focus on defending the Constitution and military security and their disdain for laws and norms that originate outside the United States or constrain the United States in any way.

Democratic delegates on the Clinton and Trump messages By these standards, requiring American soldiers to obey international humanitarian law is somewhere between foolish and treasonous. Using this rationale, the strategic and humanitarian objectives that led Ambassador Chris Stevens to risk his life, and the lives of his team, in Benghazi fade away. If foreign relations are all competition, and no cooperation, the difference between political competition at home and security competition abroad could get blurry -- as seems to have happened in Trump's encouragement of Russian hackers targeting his political adversaries.

This explains why -- while security professionals worry about Russia, China, nuclear weapons and cyberwar -- the GOP's convention devoted most of its national security programming to Benghazi and immigration. And senior Republicans, including Newt Gingrich who only a few years ago were congratulating Clinton on her foreign policy acumen, lined up to criticize her, signaling their acceptance, or at least tolerance, of this newly dominant view on the right.

The surprising secret to Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage. Ironically, though, Clinton's tenure also earned grumbles from analysts who felt she failed to loom large enough on the world stage.

As Michael Hirsh wrote for Foreign Affairs three years ago , "she leaves office without a signature doctrine, strategy, or diplomatic triumph. But to be fair, it's hard when the President who hired you doesn't believe in signature doctrines and larger-than-life diplomacy? Barack Obama, in particular, has made it clear he has little patience for diplomacy by grand gesture, and believes that shaping world affairs is a matter of small nudges rather than visible shoves.

Follow CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook. Most first-term presidents, in fact, make sure their secretaries of state don't outshine them. I did say, when I was secretary of state, three years ago, that I hoped it would be the gold standard. It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn't meet my standards. My standards for more new, good jobs for Americans, for raising wages for Americans.

I deeply believe that improved relations between our two countries will advance the common good and will help us secure a safer, more prosperous, more peaceful future," Clinton said. Clinton's relationship with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was strained, however. She set the tone for some actors in our country and gave them a signal," Putin said. Security Council measures to condemn violence in Syria further weakened diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia.

I was on good terms with Condoleezza Rice. Clinton defended her handling of Russia in Hard Choices , writing, "For those who expected the reset to open a new era of good will between Russia and the United States, it proved to be a bitter disappointment. For those of who had more modest expectations—that de-linking tough issues and toning down rhetoric on both sides could create space for progress on specific priorities—the reset delivered.

While serving as secretary of state from to , Hillary Clinton said she exclusively used a private email account to send both personal messages and communications related to official State Department business. For more information about the investigation into Clinton's private email server use, click here. As secretary of state, Clinton traveled to countries and held 1, meetings with world leaders.

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Hillary Clinton Secretary of State. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error.

Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? We've received your submission. Hillary Clinton boasts that her experience traveling to countries as secretary of state qualifies her to be president. Evidence shows she left the State Department in shambles and our nation weaker. Her record at Foggy Bottom disqualifies her to be president.

The UN has warned that eastern Aleppo will reduced to rubble by December , leaving an incoming president little or nothing to defend, and paltry options in the rest of Syria. When it came to some of the most critical foreign policy decisions made during her four years at Foggy Bottom, Clinton was consistently on the more hawkish side of the argument, frequently taking a more forceful line than her president.

In Libya , she helped convince a reluctant Obama to take part in a military intervention being championed by European and Arab states. And towards the end of her time as secretary of state, as the Syrian civil war grew ever more horrific, Clinton advocated a robust train-and-equip policy in support of the armed opposition, although she eventually lost that argument with the White House. Those instincts were on clear display when it came to the biggest foreign and security dilemma facing the Obama administration in its first year in office: what to do about the US entanglement in Afghanistan.

In , the defence secretary, Robert Gates, and the US generals were calling for a surge in troop levels aimed at pushing the Taliban back and stabilising the security situation before the government of President Hamid Karzai could be left to stand on its own. Clinton sided with the generals.

Clinton had appointed a veteran diplomat and one of her most fervent supporters, Richard Holbrooke, as her envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clinton stayed personally loyal to Holbrooke — but she did not follow his advice. She was consistently hawkish. But in the midst of that effort, when US and Pakistani military leaders were on the brink of carrying out major joint counter-insurgency operations, disaster struck.

In November , US gunships mistakenly opened fire on a Pakistani border post, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers and plunging bilateral relations into crisis. Islamabad responded by closing all road access to Afghanistan for Nato supply trucks and, with the US military determined not to admit a mistake, Washington refused to publicly apologise. Khar had only ever dealt with Clinton in formal meetings where the two sides would read their prepared talking points to each other.

But in Istanbul both women spoke frankly for more than 20 minutes. The exchange would eventually help persuade Clinton to acknowledge the US error publicly — and apologise for the loss of lives. She had a much more realistic perspective.