HATCHET WOMAN:

Rice Reshaping Foreign Policy: The secretary of State is displaying an affinity for quick action and a dislike for nuanced talk. (Paul Richter, March 15, 2005, LA Times)

Condoleezza Rice began her term as secretary of State with a tour of Europe and the Middle East last month that showed off her skills as a fence mender. The weeks that followed have revealed another side of her style.

After clashing with the Egyptians, Rice canceled a visit to Cairo. Amid tensions with the Canadians days later, she abruptly postponed a trip to Ottawa. She recalled the U.S. ambassador to Syria within 24 hours of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as accusations of Syrian involvement swirled.

And Rice has spoken publicly in blunt terms rarely heard from her predecessor, Colin L. Powell. "States that don't recognize that the Middle East is changing, and, indeed, try to halt that change … need to be isolated and condemned," she said in a recent PBS interview.

The tough new tone is just one of the changes that have been occurring in Foggy Bottom, the Washington neighborhood that is home to the department, since President Bush's former national security advisor was sworn in Jan. 26.

Among other changes, Rice has begun assembling an inner circle that will assert close control over key diplomatic issues. She also is seeking to speed decision making and action. Above all, she is trying to reshape an administration's foreign policy that has had many voices so that it has just one — that of Bush, her boss and confidant.

"We're not even two months into the second term, and it does appear that there's a marked shift in style," said Michele Dunn, a Middle East expert who worked at the National Security Council during the first Bush term and earlier at the State Department.

Some of us are old enough to remember when he was considered her protege.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2005 8:30 AM