John Kerry as secretary of State: expect a more traditional style (+video)

“He’s the man for the job given the state of the world,” says Charles Stith, a former US ambassador to Tanzania who is now director of Boston University’s African Presidential Center. “Given the unsettled times, you need someone who’s seasoned. John Kerry knows the world,” he says, “and he knows Obama’s agenda.”

In his remarks, Obama noted that in his first term, he had called on Kerry to help the administration address a number of complex diplomatic challenges – from Afghanistan to Sudan and South Sudan – and that each time he had been “exceptional.”

Moreover, both foreign officials and foreign-policy analysts have responded to Kerry’s nomination by emphasizing his extensive knowledge of salient foreign-policy issues – and the key people behind them.

“Senator Kerry is a man of towering stature and accomplishments, having served the United States with great vigor and distinction,” said Sherry Rehman, the Pakistani ambassador to Washington, in a statement. “Senator Kerry has demonstrated through the years an extraordinary understanding of the complexities of South and Central Asia.”

Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, cited Kerry’s “longstanding personal relationships.” “His leadership on energy and trade, nuclear non-proliferation and the changing Middle East,” she added in her statement, “make him particularly qualified to meet twenty-first century challenges that transcend national boundaries and cabinet departments.”

In her own statement, Clinton – who is recovering at home from an illness – also underscored Kerry’s established relationships with many world leaders. And she gave her endorsement of Kerry a personal dimension by noting that both of them know what it is to lose a hard-fought political campaign – Kerry the 2004 presidential race, she the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

But she said the experience of losing at politics is something Kerry will be able to put to good use in a world of many young democracies, just as she has. “As I have learned,” Clinton said, “being able to talk candidly as someone who has won elections and also lost them is an enormous asset when engaging with emerging or fragile democracies.”

A large part of being secretary of State is frequent travel – often long and grueling trips. Clinton used her travel to dozens of countries not just to strategize with allies and confront and cajole less amenable world leaders, but also to extend America’s hand of partnership to the people of the world, in thousands of sometimes folksy events.

Time will tell if Kerry, widely lauded for his deft use of his long experience with the world’s leaders, will ultimately strike a similar balance.

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