My dean, my dean

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Friday, February 20, 2009 - 2:05 PM Share

Dean Stephen Bosworth sent out the following e-mail to the Fletcher School community less than an hour ago:

In the past few weeks, you have most likely seen news reports of my possible appointment as Special Representative for North Korea Policy. I have wanted to keep you informed but naturally could not comment until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had made a formal announcement. Now that she has done so, I can confirm that I have accepted her offer.
This honor comes at a truly critical time as the Obama Administration begins to develop its strategy for engaging with North Korea. I will serve as the U.S. representative to the six-party talks, which seek to find a peaceful resolution to security issues on the Korean Peninsula.

I want to assure you that, with the full support of our President Lawrence S. Bacow, our Chairman of the Board of Overseers Peter Ackerman, and Fletcher’s senior leadership team, I will continue to serve as Dean and will work to ensure Fletcher remains the world standard for graduate institutions of international affairs. My commitment to The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is undiminished.

Here's the Korea Times coverage on the announcement.

The hard-working staff here at Danieldrezner.com wishes Dean Bosworth the best of luck in getting Pyongyang to agree to, er, anything. As I said last week, "trying to manage faculty meetings at the Fletcher school is excellent prep work for negotiating with the obsteperous officials of the DPRK."

EXPLORE:U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, FLETCHER SCHOOL, FOREIGN POLICY COMMUNITY, HILLARY CLINTON, NORTH KOREA, STATE DEPARTMENT

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ZATHRAS

4:46 PM ET

February 20, 2009

Is this wise?

All respect to Dan's Dean, but if being the American representative to the six-party talks is a part-time job then my understanding of the North Korean situation is a lot more deficient than I think it is.

I can't speak to whether being Dean of the Fletcher School is a part-time job or not, and I suppose it's possible that this Bosworth fellow has powers far beyond those of mortal men. There is a question I have, though -- about this and a number of other policy areas -- as to who in the Obama administration will actually be making decisions and taking responsibility for them. In the case of the North Korean nuclear question, will it be a guy juggling two jobs? Will it be his predecessor, pending his arrival in Baghdad as the ambassador there? The Secretary of State? The Assistant Secretary for East Asia, when we get one? Someone in the Pentagon? NSA Jones?

I have nothing against troubleshooters, but President Obama seems to be moving toward government by troubleshooter, or at least government by czar, coordinator and special envoy. This approach has shortcomings, experienced by some previous administrations and not adequately compensated for by whatever short-term benefits attach to the announcement of an individual to a post of nominal responsibility for a specific, well-known policy problem.

BLUE13326

10:31 PM ET

February 20, 2009

Hilarious! Almost beyond

Hilarious! Almost beyond parody.

North Korea is reportedly weeks away from test firing an intermediate range ballistic missile that could hit the US and the U.S. representative to the six-party talks is...a part-time job.

Wouldn't want the prospect of California getting nuked to interfere with his day job...

KENNETH SORENSEN

1:09 PM ET

February 23, 2009

A great chance for the School

The leadership of Fletscher School obviously regards his promotion as a great possibility to promote the School. In reality he will probably not have so much time at the school, allthough you can expect the occasional visit, but all the public needs to know is that he remains as Dean, and also for Mr. Bosworth himself it is reassuring to know that he can return, and when he returns his experiences will provide firsthand-inputs to the students of the relevant field.

NK in want of serious negociating partner

Generally, what a regime like that in North Korea likes, is being taken seriously and to have their concerns adressed by a sincere negociating partner. In the fall of 2000, there was a possibility of opening up to NK, as numerous visitors, among them Russia's President Putin , Sweden's PM Göran Persson and US Foreign Secretary Madeleine Allbright all reported that the leadership of NK was not mad, but sincere, informed and ready to negociate. Ms. Allbright tried to get Clinton involved, as she spotted a succes-story to end President Clintons term. But powerful forces in Washington DC (Who could that be?) insisted that he should engage in the Mid East Peaceproces instead - which ended in failure in January 2001.(Who in Washington foresaw failure, and wanted Clinton to end in failure?)

So from North Koreas point of view, US policies have been shifting and non-consistent. A great insult occured, when the Jewish-Canadian speech-writer David Frum in January 2002, made President Bush utter the disastrous words: 'Axis-of-evil'. It made Saddam Hussein unwilling to cooperate, it made NK re-start its reactor in December, and it prompted the Iranian Priesthood (the real leadership of Iran) to pick a hardliner as President, - cause these countries reasonned: " So now that we apparently belong to this Axis-of-evil, we might as well be un-cooperative from the start."

KENNETH SORENSEN

1:05 PM ET

February 23, 2009

Time to scred narcissism

Mr. Dan Drezner. As you have noticed, now I have comed to your blog. So it is a question if you can continue your slightly narcissistic style, exemplified with your self-promotion in the column to the right of this text.

Today, what we are striving for is a responsible approach to the problems we are facing. We do not like any undue self-promotion, which flyes in the face of all hard working Americans. Let Stephen Walt be your guide. A guy that is 23 times a better person than you.

DANIEL W. DREZNER

1:24 PM ET

February 23, 2009

The number 23?

I'm curious -- how did you arrive at that exact ratio?

KENNETH SORENSEN

1:55 PM ET

February 23, 2009

Self-promotion has had its day

For at start Stephen Walt doesn't promote himself in this way, and neither does Mr. Mearsheimer. It is not the British way - the British being the most civilised people on Earth. So it must be due to some other influence. No doubt it has it roots in an inferior compex.

I am not going to dwelve into it. And I assure you I will not take any further interest in it, if we can arrive at the compromise that you remove these 'Reviews' to the right of this text.