Hillary Clinton: We Performed Diplomacy "In A Different Way"
HILLARY CLINTON: I think we have to go back to my beginning in January of 2009 to remember how poorly perceived the United States was, how badly damaged our reputation was, how our leadership was in question, how the economic crises had really shaken peoples confidence in our government, our economic system, our country. Part of my job in the very beginning was to get around the world and restore confidence in American leadership, sometimes against some pretty tough odds because there were a lot of people pointing fingers at us, particularly over the financial crises. But it was important to stabilize the situation, which I think we did.
I know the president was talking about that in an interview we did the other day. Let's be realistic here about what the conditions were. We had the war in Iraq, that had to be wound down. We had a troop request for 30,000 troops sitting on the president's desk the first day he walked into office. We had so many serious problems, and I don't think that anybody can argue with what we did to try to set the table. And then what did we do with that? You can go down the list, and whether it’s how we handled the Arab Spring and the work that had to be done in order to try to prevent even more serious challenges, how we put together an international coalition to inflict the toughest sanctions on Iran and North Korea, not that those are solved. But diplomacy is sometimes building on steps one after the other – opening to Burma, pivoting to Asia, working to really strengthen our ties in Europe and Latin America and Africa. I’m very proud of what we’ve done.
But equally so, we began to practice diplomacy in a different way – not that we jettisoned everything that had been done before, but we added new tools in the toolbox. We also expanded the aperture. Let’s look at what technology can do for us. Don’t forget women and girls; they’re half the population, right? (The Situation Room, January 29, 2013)
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