{"id":132296,"date":"2016-12-13T22:46:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T05:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/what-should-a-secretary-of-state-know.html"},"modified":"2016-12-15T22:13:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T05:13:52","slug":"what-should-a-secretary-of-state-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/what-should-a-secretary-of-state-know.html","title":{"rendered":"What should a Secretary of State know?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The linked, rather screedy, piece makes two worthwhile points:<\/p>\n

1. Even if Tillerson divests himself of every bit of Exxon stock, pension, golden parachute, whatever, he's still going to be approaching the role of the US chief foreign policy guy and diplomat from a lifelong career<\/i> as an Exxon employee and executive.<\/p>\n

2. And aside from oil reserves and regime stability, his knowledge of world affairs (and our knowledge of his opinions) is pretty limited:<\/p>\n

'There’s a hell of a lot of other stuff the secretary of State has to do. Let’s start with Israel and Palestine. What sort of grasp of Israeli politics does Tillerson have? Any? And the internecine battles within the Palestinian world?Syria? Factions upon factions upon factions! The history of the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The roles played by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah and their histories. Does Tillerson know anything about any of this beyond the broad headlines? And that’s just one region of the world. There are several others, you know.<\/i><\/p>\n

Then there are the issues that the State Department works on that go beyond state relationships. Potable water. Does he have a handle on that? The subjugation of women. Slavery and peonage. Malaria and other diseases. What’s he going to prioritize, and what’s he going to propose to do about those matters?<\/i><\/p>\n

My point isn’t that he ought to be able to fix all these things. It’s that a normal pick would know a little something about all these matters, and have a sense of who to get on the phone when a crisis erupts somewhere. Tillerson will be learning on the job literally every day for his entire tenure, however long it lasts.<\/i><\/p>\n

Except, that is, about fossil fuels and Russia.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Just something to think about. Unless, of course, the message is that the only thing the US is interested in from foreign countries is oil & gas and other resources, and maybe overall stability to promote trade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nFour Reasons Tapping Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State Is a Terrible Idea<\/a><\/span>
\nA global energy CEO would have been a totally unacceptable choice even a decade ago. Now, it’s happening.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The linked, rather screedy, piece makes two worthwhile points: 1. Even if Tillerson divests himself of every bit of Exxon stock, pension, golden parachute, whatever, he's still going to be approaching the role of the US chief foreign policy guy and diplomat from a lifelong career as an Exxon employee and executive. 2. And aside … Continue reading “What should a Secretary of State know?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,532,348],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-elections-2016","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132231,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/11\/because-what-the-us-state-department-needs.html","url_meta":{"origin":132296,"position":0},"title":"Because what the US State Department needs","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Dec-16 1:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"... is to be led by the multi-zillionaire head of a massive multi-national oil company and decorated friend of Russia.I mean, really?And how is that whole \"conflict of interest\" thing going to work when the guy who has worked for Exxon all his professional career and as CEO probably has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132288,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/trump-picks-tillerson-for-secretary-of-state.html","url_meta":{"origin":132296,"position":1},"title":"Trump picks Tillerson for Secretary of State","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Dec-16 4:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Rex Tillerson sounds like a CEO name, and he is in fact the Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil. But he's also Donald Trump's Secretary of State nominee. Some thoughts:The Good- Tillerson knows the globe (i.e., anywhere ExxonMobil does business), and he knows major players around it.- Tillerson is, by all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133745,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/28\/will-rex-tillerson-be-the-first-trump-secretary-to-bail.html","url_meta":{"origin":132296,"position":2},"title":"Will Rex Tillerson be the first Trump secretary to bail?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jun-17 10:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We often read about how frustrating DC has been for Donald Trump, a free-wheeling CEO who is used to giving orders and having them executed, to suddenly find himself mired in politics and institutional restraints and checks and balances and all that folderol.But consider poor Rex Tillerson, a CEO of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135051,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/10\/trump-sure-hed-win-iq-test-tillerson.html","url_meta":{"origin":132296,"position":3},"title":"Trump is sure he’d win an IQ test against Tillerson","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Oct-17 8:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, I'd pay money to watch that one. On the other and, how smart can Tillerson actually be? He agreed to be (and has remained) Secretary of State for someone who has nothing but contempt for the State Dept. Trump suggests he'd top Tillerson in an IQ test after 'moron'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Trump-smug.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135510,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/04\/rexxing-state-department.html","url_meta":{"origin":132296,"position":4},"title":"Rexxing the State Department","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Dec-17 7:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Why has Rex Tillerson, Trump's Secretary of State, \"hollowed out\" so much of the diplomatic corps, leaving position unfilled, eliminating others, forcing folk out with no replacement? Because Trump is going to make things so gosh-darn spiffy around the world that, well, who will need all those diplomats? 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