Former Ambassador to Turkey, Marc Grossman, is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s pick to replace the late Richard Holbrooke.
Grossman, the new special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan brings with him decades of foreign policy expertise and a real hand feel for the politics of Islam and Islamist moderation–a real salutary capability that will surely be at play in the current politics of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Is it possible that since the peaceful transition away from Mubarak regime, the U.S foreign policy machine, so late in recognizing a changing world, has moved to stem the tide of Islamist capture of moderate Muslim countries? Picking someone with Ambassador Grossman’s credentials at the expense of someone like Strobe Talbott, might suggest just that. But it may be too early to tell. The Times and the Washington Post report that Ambassador Grossman will get the formal nod as late as Friday. Nevertheless, the similarities between Tunisia, Egypt and Pakistan are certainly striking. And surely one would not be entirely incorrect to think that the State Department is trying to game out just those similiarities.