NATION

As she flew across Asia in her latest overseas trip, it was clear that in the two months she has been Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has consolidated her power as the chief exponent of the Administration's foreign policy. Rice and Bush are closer than any other President and Secretary of State since Bush 41 and James Baker did their memorable duet 16 years ago. And Rice and Bush may have an advantage over that team: unlike Baker, Rice doesn't have to worry about becoming bigger and more popular than her boss. She already is.

On the latest visit to Asia, Rice garnered big headlines and huge photos by saying and doing perfectly ordinary things. She schmoozed election workers in Kabul, did the normal round of interviews on local TV, and flung herself into a bear hug with Hawaiian-born sumo superstar Konishiki in Tokyo.

Around the globe, diplomats are busy comparing notes on what they see—and they aren't talking about her stiletto boots. To some, Condi's rise signals a return to a more pragmatic U.S. diplomacy for an Administration exhausted by war, occupation and ideological infighting. That perception was given a recent boost by Bush's announcement that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the chief architect of the war in Iraq, would leave the Pentagon to take over as head of the World Bank—another sign that Rice and her realist deputies have gained the upper hand over their neoconservative rivals at the Defense Department.

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You can tell a lot about Bush's regard for Rice by where he is placing her friends—and where he has dispatched her likely rivals. The transfer of former Undersecretary of State John Bolton to the U.N. was shrewdly sold as a win for hard-liners—and there was indeed something in it for them. But it's increasingly clear that Bolton's departure is at least as much of a win for Rice, and probably more so. Rice refused to appoint Bolton to the job he wanted—as her deputy—and those who know her say she will not tolerate the kind of free-lancing Bolton was famous for when he worked for Powell.

So now that the bureaucratic pieces have fallen her way, what does Rice plan to do with them? She has led the push in the Administration for reform in the Middle East, canceling a trip to Egypt after Cairo jailed a leading political activist (the next day, Hosni Mubarak stunned the Egyptian public with a call for multiparty presidential elections). Rice executed a course correction on Lebanon, cooling U.S. denunciations of the militant group Hizballah, aware that the organization will almost certainly increase its clout in the May elections. And Rice quietly prevailed earlier this month when the U.S. backed European efforts to induce Iran to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic and trade incentives.

Are the disagreements among Bush foreign policymakers gone? Of course not. But for now, the nonstop dissonance of the first term has subsided, replaced by something new: a single voice who speaks confidently for the boss. —from TIME, March 28, 2005

Questions

1. According to diplomatic observers, what does the rise of Condoleezza Rice reveal about the Bush Administration's foreign policy?

2. What is Rice's top priority as Secretary of State?

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