William J. Burns has been the secret weapon of U.S. secretaries of state for more than two decades, serving consecutively under three Republicans and three Democrats. So it came as no surprise that John Kerry wanted to be the seventh chief diplomat to lean daily on Burns, currently the country's highest-ranking career diplomat, by keeping him on as deputy secretary of state, a position to which Burns was appointed by Hillary Clinton.
"Bill is the gold standard for quiet, head-down, get-it-done diplomacy," Kerry said of Burns. "He is smart and savvy, and he understands not just where policy should move, but how to navigate the distance between Washington and capitals around the world. I worked with Bill really closely from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and I'm even more privileged to work with him now every single day. He has an innate knack for issues and relationships that's unsurpassed."
Denis McDonough, President Obama's chief of staff and former deputy national security adviser, called Burns "the quintessential diplomat." He is "steady, calm and always clear in what he is setting out to accomplish," McDonough said. "We are lucky to have him."
Republicans were equally flattering. "What makes Bill so special is that he is calm, unflappable, informed, with an absolute steel core. He is a man of principle who will not bow to expediency," said Richard Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state during President George W. Bush's first term. James A. Baker, President George H.W. Bush's secretary of state, called Burns a "top-notch public servant" who "speaks truth to power in an understated way." He is "not ideological, calls it like he sees it, and everybody has confidence in him," Baker said. "I don't know anyone who thinks ill of him, and if you look at the results of his work, you will know why."
Several others said that Burns' careful but masterful handling of the bureaucracy and his lack of desire to grab the limelight -- he rarely gives interviews -- have been as important to his success as his diplomatic skills. "Whenever we are hunting for talent, I tell people I want to find the next Bill Burns," Kerry said. "He embodies exactly the combination of capable and agile thinker and doer that the career Foreign Service was envisioned to produce."
It may have been so envisioned, but is the Foreign Service actually producing "the next Bill Burns"? I asked hundreds of career diplomats and political appointees that question during the research for my recently published book America's Other Army. Most of those interviewed, including Burns himself, said that identifying promising young Foreign Service officers and nurturing them to become strong leaders and top-notch diplomats has been a weakness of the service.
"Here the Foreign Service could learn from the military," said former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "The military identifies early on people who they think are going to make it to the higher ranks and gives them a series of experiences that make sure they are ready. They actually do career planning with their people."
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Cameron Munter, a former career ambassador to Pakistan and Serbia, agreed. Top military leaders "look at the captain and major levels and pick the winners," he said. "Maybe someone wants to go drive tanks, but he has to go spend a year in Tennessee instead to learn about logistics -- not because they need a guy to learn about logistics, but because they need a leader with the specific training necessary for future jobs the service needs. We don't do anything of the sort."
Eliot Cohen, the State Department counselor under Rice and a Johns Hopkins University professor, said that effective leadership in the Foreign Service remains a challenge despite positive efforts made since Colin Powell was secretary of state during the first half of the last decade. "If you come across good leaders, they just happened to be born that way," he said. "The institution doesn't do enough to develop good leadership, as far as I can tell. There are leaders like Bill Burns, but that's because of whatever magic was in his DNA."