Diplomatic work boosts his profile for Cabinet post

By Bryan Bender

The Boston Globe

Dec. 17, 2012

Senator John F. Kerry has spent much of his career sitting across from foreign leaders trying to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems — from Nicaragua to Pakistan and Vietnam to Syria.

If he becomes President Obama’s next secretary of state as expected, Kerry will carry the greatest negotiating authority of his career — and face immense pressure to advance from an expert listener and seeker of common ground to an international dealmaker of the highest caliber.

Kerry has declined to give interviews in recent weeks as speculation about the pick has swirled around him. But he spoke to the Globe last summer about his decades of diplomatic experience in the context of his role as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee...

“He will be viewed as an appropriate representative of the United States with prime ministers, heads of state, and foreign ministers,” said former senator Charles Robb, a fellow Vietnam veteran who is at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “He has become increasingly sure-footed in terms of how he approaches questions of foreign policy.”

With the withdrawal of UN Ambassador Susan Rice from consideration, Kerry is considered the front-runner to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Obama’s second term.

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Foreign Policy Project