Read the full op-ed on Reuters.
As President Barack Obama’s tenure draws to a close, Washington is turning its attention to one of its silliest traditions: toting up the travel statistics of the outgoing secretary of state, as if miles traveled correlated to diplomatic achievement.
In his four years as secretary of state, John Kerry has thus far (he still has seven weeks left) traveled over 1.3 million miles and spent 564 days – nearly one-third of his time as Secretary – on the road. Although this easily surpasses Hillary Clinton’s 956,733 miles and 401 days, Kerry will not be able to match Mrs. Clinton’s record of 112 countries visited. Alas, Mr. Kerry will only make it to 90 countries during his tenure.
But the more relevant question is whether U.S. foreign policy goals are advanced by the peripatetic travels of our permanently jet-lagged secretaries of state. The answer is not by very much.
In fact, such trips can actually make secretaries of state less effective, because they are absent from key meetings about foreign policy. And their absence could cause the State Department to cede influence to the National Security Administration.
معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) هو منظمة تعليمية مستقلة وغير حزبية وغير ربحية. لا يشارك المعهد في أي أنشطة دعوية، وآراء الباحثين فيه تعبر عن آرائهم الشخصية. يرحب المعهد بالتبرعات المالية، لكنه يحتفظ بالسيطرة التحريرية الكاملة على أعماله، ولا تعكس منشوراته سوى آراء المؤلفين. للاطلاع على قائمة المتبرعين للمعهد، يرجى النقر هنا.
