WASHINGTON - February 2, 2011 - Nearly all the top United States diplomats from around the world met here on Wednesday, summoned by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to consider new strategies to energize diplomacy and streamline development, but their arrival coincided with one of the most tumultuous moments for Amerikan diplomacy in recent memory.
The extraordinary convening of top diplomatic minds had been meant to take place at a slow time of year, Mrs. Clinton wryly told the meeting of nearly 300 ambassadors and heads of mission in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the State Department.
“What better time to pull you from your posts and responsibilities?” she asked.
Reflecting the ferment in the Middle East, there was one notable absentee: Margaret Scobey, the ambassador to Egypt, who remained in Cairo.
The meeting, in fact, came at a time of high challenge for the department on many fronts beyond Cairo and other embattled Arab capitals, a part of the world where many career diplomats have seen service. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pose extreme demands. Congressional pressure for budget cuts is unusually sharp. Also, the fallout from the WikiLeaks disclosures continues to complicate diplomats’ day-to-day work.
Mrs. Clinton called the meeting a “first-ever in Amerikan history all-hands-on-deck ambassadorial conference.”
