Secretary of State John Kerry pledged Wednesday that he and the rest of the American diplomatic corps will “continue pushing every aspect” of President Obama’s foreign policy until President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“The pace of events across the globe does not allow for timeouts,” Kerry wrote in a letter to State Department employees. “Our goal should be to continue pushing every aspect of our foreign policy forward between now and when the new leadership team takes office.”
That raises the unavoidable tension between current policies and the likely positions of the incoming administration, given how much Trump campaigned against Obama’s foreign policy. From the Iran deal to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and beyond, Trump attacked Obama’s record — but the State Department doesn’t plan to change course before Inauguration Day.
“We have two months, more or less, remaining to this administration,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. “We’re not going to take our foot off the pedal.”
The presidential election took place with many key elements of Obama’s foreign policy unresolved. American diplomats are in Morocco for a climate change conference with international negotiators, who are working on how to implement the Paris climate accord, which Trump opposes. Concurrently, international watchdogs have concluded that Iran “has exceeded a soft limit on sensitive material set under its nuclear deal with western powers,” according to Reuters.
The Syrian civil war is still raging, and Russian President Vladimir Putin — who seemed to court Trump during the presidential campaign — has not backed down from annexing Crimea and destabilizing eastern Ukraine.
Kerry’s team will make the case for their foreign policy during the transition period. “We’re going to make every effort to make sure that they understand the current administration’s perspective on all of these issues and the importance of what we’ve accomplished, and the progress we’ve made on these issues, including climate change, including Syria, including Iran, etc,” Toner said. “Ultimately, it’s for the incoming administration to choose its foreign policy goals.”
Whatever Trump chooses, the State Department will “welcome our incoming colleagues warmly and professionally and to provide them with all the assistance,” as Kerry put it in the message to department employees.
“Let us all remember that the value of American democracy is reflected in the ability of our citizens to debate policy openly and choose their leaders freely,” he added.
