Kerry needs to spell out his plans

In his first overview of American foreign policy, the new US Secretary of State, John Kerry, delivered a disappointing speech, which was very short on policy detail as he prepared to make his first foreign trip in his new role, visiting the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey and Egypt and the four major states of the European Union.

Kerry is expected to review what to do about the conflicts in Syria, Mali and Afghanistan, but he is avoiding Israel and Palestine since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still putting together his next coalition and his government is in some chaos.

Kerry used his speech to focus on the furious domestic battle in the Congress over government spending. He spoke out in defence of his new department’s budget, arguing that diplomacy today was much cheaper than sending troops tomorrow.

The very experienced ex-senator warned about the grave dangers of the latest fiscal showdown between the White House and Congress and the threat of massive automatic spending cuts on March 1.

Kerry said his country needed to resolve its economic issues. Otherwise it would be “hard” to tell other nations to do the same and he said that legislators needed to avoid “senseless cuts” and called the budget impasse in the Congress a threat

Turning to happier things, he was lyrical about America’s sense of commitment to the world, saying that “America is exceptional because we do exceptional things. We will continue to lead as the indispensable nation, not because we seek this role, but because the world needs us to fill it ... Not because we view it as a burden, but because we know it to be a privilege”.

It will be important to see how he converts these words into action and his impending visit to Abu Dhabi will give him an opportunity to spell out to one of America’s strongest allies in the region what he thought the US could do to help end the long-running conflicts in the area.