Department of State - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of State Index / Organizations Transcripts Michael Mullen ...Navy Hill, across the street from the State Department , and had lived there since he got in... ...people from the White House or from the State Department , I ask about the Medvedev-Obam... ...it—in my view, that didn't bring the State Department and the White House any closer togethe... Michael Morell ...The Intelligence and Research Bureau at State Department works for the secretary of state... William Burns ...including executive secretary of the State Department , acting director and principal deput... ...and principal deputy director of the State Department 's policy planning staff, and specia... ...which is the number three job in the State Department , usually the highest job that a caree... ...jobs on the seventh floor of the State Department where the senior leadership sits—I ra... ...in Iraq, in which a number of us in the State Department , including Powell himself, had prett... ...job, the number three job in the State Department , had been held more often than not b... ...on the first day she came in to the State Department as the secretary designate, th... ...approach to leading and managing the State Department ? It did. I don't know about he... ...signaled about the role he saw for the State Department and foreign policy making. I saw it... ...I think a lot of my colleagues in the State Department saw it, as a sign that the presiden... ...to diplomacy but of the heft that the State Department would have with a secretary of stat... ...role as the number three person of the State Department , to actually begin to flesh out thi... ...memories of those first days in the State Department and actually beginning to craft ... ...White House, to Secretary Rice at the State Department , as well as all the incoming people o... ...the first day that she came into the State Department , into the transition offices that ne... ...used down on the first floor of the State Department , right near the entrance. So, shortl... ...both what needed to be done inside the State Department to make us more agile to show mor... ...but also the ways in which the State Department could best interact with the Whit... ...institution of American diplomacy, Department of State , that needs to step up. You have ... ...tone then for both the Pentagon and the State Department as institutions. I had seen prior era... ...we paid a lot of attention, both in the State Department and the administration as a whole, t... ...in the White House itself and in the State Department , with really high-profile envoys lik... ...at different times, Todd Stern in the State Department , certainly Secretary Kerry, when h... ...what we could've done different in the State Department . We tried to be honest about that. Bu... ...is usually the number three job in the State Department , the one I had at the time... ...is the senior-most career position. The State Department , by contrast, or at least more tha... ...that maybe could've been handled by the State Department , by the embassy. But you write it in ... ...spent three and a half decades in the State Department —is while individual foreign servic... ...and courageous, as an institution the State Department is rarely accused of being too agile o... ...that I would attend representing the State Department , there was this whole session abou... ...the president gives a speech at the State Department about Middle East policy. What memorie... ...hope was, in the White House and in the State Department , that you could still preserve th... ...programs that had existed in the State Department as well as in AID. So what this wa... ...your closing thoughts, as you left the State Department , on Obama's foreign policy an... ...get us to the end of your time at the State Department . You retired late in 2014. We didn'... ...during the six years you were at the State Department during his administration, or the eigh... ...year I spent as the number three in the State Department , the undersecretary for politica... ...between the White House and the State Department ? You've mentioned a number of th... ...bureaucratic battles between the State Department and the Defense Department, in th... Show more... Anne Patterson ...and she's a two-time recipient of the State Department 's distinguished service award. Sh... ...or other key appointees at the State Department . I think everyone was pleased to se... ...anything from that period at the State Department , after coming back from Egypt, that w... ...and then from your vantage point at the State Department , just to ask you to reflect on th... ...had a truly destructive impact on the State Department , was Benghazi. We can talk about tha... Mark Lippert ...at your resume. You interned at the State Department in graduate school. Why didn't yo... ...everything you need to know about the State Department —it's Skulls and Bones at Yale meet... ...up the White House is really hard. State Department , DOD, yes, you can make some changes... ...were detailed over from agencies. The State Department , on year three of a detail, charge... ...like, “You want us to talk about the State Department ? We're drowning here.” So, there wa... ...with the East Asia Summit. There were State Department machinations as well as AID plus-ups i... ...up being the deputy assistant at the State Department and she covered a lot of th... ...the SecDef, power centers. The State Department is much more of a hierarchy. But th... ...for example, at the White House, at the State Department ? Is there any dimension of the jo... ...Yeah, I was in touch a lot with the State Department chief of staff or deputy chief o... ...The Pentagon is operational. Unlike the State Department —the State Department needs its money... ...Unlike the State Department—the State Department needs its money. There's no doubt abou... ...other hand, I got more people at the State Department telling me, “Well, it's too hard. We'r... Show more... Anne-Marie Slaughter ...the director of policy planning in the State Department , where she served until 2011 as th... ...Again—so, I wanted to be high up in the State Department from senior year in high school on... ...and how did you use them? The State Department thought of diasporas as groups o... ...chief. She definitely cared about the State Department . She did things like advancing gay an... ...policy, GLBTQ policy, within the State Department , as well as around the world. Sh... ...kind of comes to be a strength of her State Department . Absolutely. It's not that she'... ...tied to the initiatives of the State Department or the administration. How did yo... ...partnership that involved the State Department collaborating with the Aspen Institute... ...that she and so many others in the State Department do is—you're just exhausted all th... ...down for those kinds of dinners to the State Department , which was very exciting. Polic... ...done. And it was not only making the State Department do it—and remember, the Stat... ...Department do it—and remember, the State Department is much less resourced than th... ...International Development], which—the State Department and USAID aren't exactly friends mos... ...Raj Shah said it was the only time a State Department official had ever gotten one, becaus... ...can't do anything else, rearrange the State Department .” But I think, actually—again, i... ...of Transition Initiatives, where the State Department was trying to develop more of a... ...more importantly, more officials in the State Department who saw the world this way—and ther... ...Clinton always said that. Yet our State Department is far better geared towards dealin... ...in the first term, when you were in the State Department , that you witnessed? Or do I perhap... ...perhaps hear you saying that maybe the State Department 's approach to some of these foreig... ...had very different conversations in the State Department when it was just the women in th... ...technology to the kinds of problems the State Department faces. Imagine if you hav... ...crisis in Honduras while I was in the State Department . And Secretary Clinton was jus... ...was director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011. She is currently CE... ...We had a really great team at the State Department . Roberta Jacobson was not ye... ...confronting an issue like this from the State Department , so what was that like? I was no... ...any other examples from your time at State Department where you saw the secretary, or wher... ...there's nothing else from the State Department time, I'd love to pick up where we wer... ...time around—was. John Kerry was at the State Department —and there was a lot of business to ge... ...wasn't so much about having been in the State Department ? Yes, definitely the latter... ...in mayors' offices than who work in the State Department . Yes. That's such a fascinating idea... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the The People's House The People's House go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa go to the Black Politics Black Politics go to the Criminal Justice Criminal Justice go to the Obama in the Senate Obama in the Senate