Zoellick Plies a New Trade/Asia Times Online

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From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jan 14 2005

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GA14Dj01.html

ZOELLICK PLIES A NEW TRADE

By Tom Barry

To what degree do neo-conservatives and militarists control US foreign policy? And how much influence do the less ideological figures such as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice have over President George W Bush?

Those were the questions continually debated by foreign-policy observers during the last three years of the first Bush administration. And at the onset of Bush's second term, assessing the new ideological-realist balance in the foreign policy team is the main topic of Washington's foreign-policy community.

The president's nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and her selection of Robert Zoellick as her top deputy indicate that the ultra-hawks and neo-con foreign-policy revolutionaries won't completely dominate the second administration. Neither Rice nor Zoellick, who served as the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the first administration, is an ideologue. But neither are they moderate conservatives. Only when compared to such figures as Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and his deputies, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, and Douglas Feith, could they be considered moderates.

Both Rice and Zoellick are non-ideological foreign-policy operatives who are not idealists or true believers. Rather, they are realists who accept the neo-conservative premise of US global supremacy but want to manage that power wisely to further their notions of US national security and interests. At first glance, Zoellick could be mistaken for an ideologue, as an evangelist for free trade and a member of the neo-conservative vanguard. But when his political trajectory is more closely observed, Zoellick is better understood as a "can-do" member of the Republican foreign-policy elite - a diplomat who always keeps his eye on the prize, namely the interests of Corporate America and US global hegemony. Based on his record in the administration of president George H W Bush and the current Bush presidency, Zoellick is highly regarded as an astute deal-maker.

Rice's surprise selection of Zoellick was greeted with an almost palpable sense of relief inside Washington's foreign-policy circles. The great fear, outside the neo-conservative and militarist camps, was that Vice President Richard Cheney and company would insist that the shrill unilateralist John Bolton, current under secretary for arms control, serve as Rice's deputy.

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