Department of State - Obama Presidency Oral History

...of us were involved. Kurt was on the State Department transition; Michèle led the DO...

...of policy planning staff at the State Department ? Is that a position that you ha...

...the ones in charge, similarly with the State Department with Secretary Clinton. Defens...

...to close out, and then started at the State Department . Obviously we don't need to go into ...

...planning is one of the few parts of the State Department bureaucracy that has visibility int...

...the first few weeks of being at the State Department , I got a call from the White Hous...

...I did contribute to that but from a State Department side; so as the Holbrooke team an...

...side, and a policy side, of how the State Department and the USAID [United States Agency fo...

...involved both ideas about the way the State Department worked but also just the process tha...

...the White House is undertaking and the State Department is involved in: the Russia reset, th...

...And I'd be curious what role the State Department in particular was playing in tha...

...engagement. In the AfPak review, the State Department role was critical. And Secretar...

...Afghanistan policy, that was all the State Department . So there was a lot of back-and-fort...

...there wasn't a question of should the State Department be more involved and take mor...

...a whole-of-government approach at the State Department . What he built in his team, whic...

...about diplomacy and the role of the State Department . I think it's by dint of he...

...churn among those of us. I was at the State Department at the time, and we had set up a tas...

...picked this time to transition from the State Department to the White House. What's the stor...

...director of policy planning at the State Department , 2009 to 2011; then as specia...

...in these sorts of jobs, whether at the State Department and policy planning or at the NSC, ha...

...secretary of state, when I was at the State Department —used their time to try to achieve wha...

...work going on, principally out of the State Department , because there was a whole bureau o...

...because there was a whole bureau of the State Department that was charged with post-conflic...

...of a speech. I remember being at the State Department at the time, and all the discussio...

...makes a speech in mid-March at the State Department where he reframes the American role i...

...equality, things like that? The State Department speech was an important effort. And ...

...drove this broader message from the State Department speech but then also drove some of th...

...what comes next. So the effort that the State Department speech in March, Obama's speec...

...to, say, my regional colleagues at the State Department , is that we were only focused on th...

...counselor of the United States Department of State . In this interview, we will not b...

...force, diplomatically working with the State Department . We were told that evening, o...

...this from a colleague here at the State Department , at the time, who was telling me tha...

...was a view from some people in the State Department , both in Moscow and back i...

...my phone rang. I could tell it was the State Department Operations Center. I said to th...

...Syria. What was your involvement or the State Department 's role in some of these earl...

...what role were you playing from the State Department in the White House and the government'...

...we were not freelancing—we in the State Department sort of seized the opportunity to tr...

...in the Obama administration between State Department and White House, and how much of tha...

...I think the coordination between the State Department and the White House worked really well...

...president gives a major address at the State Department , a major address on the Arab Sprin...

...you were at the White House or at the State Department , those of us who were working on thes...

...you went about transitioning from the State Department to the United Nations. The fiv...

...there only a month after you left the State Department — Yes. —is that right? To wha...

...at the start, about your move to the State Department from the White House—not just how tha...

...in leaving or going back to the State Department . But Kurt Campbell, the then assistan...

...White House to doing Asia policy in the State Department , retaining my connections and, shal...

...different parts of Asia. Also, at the State Department , instead of the policy engineerin...

...of staff work shifted to a role in the State Department that maybe was a lot like ...

...went to Burma—before I went over to the State Department . But as assistant secretary, I guess ...

...It was as soon as I got over to the State Department . Now, I had made some quite-goo...

...situation, but my colleagues in the State Department and the NSC, and others, argued that w...

...out, so I had a speech prepared by the State Department . I went through it very carefully...

...approach. So I think the State Department was given leeway to start, and Kur...

...was already being thought about in the State Department , and I said, “The only way you can d...

...and it was everybody. I remember the State Department writing to me and saying, “What i...

...which typically stopped at Burma— State Department or the NSC—extended into South Asia...