According to a breaking story from the NY Times: President-elect Obama is contemplating a serious '“civilian reserve corps” of nation-builders under State Department auspices.' If this is true, and with Senator Clinton heading the State Department, what a terrific idea. This sounds like the Marshall Plan meets the Peace Corp. By sending individual Americans to work on these projects, Americans will have the opportunity to learn from those they go to aid, while bringing America's best resource - its human capital - to the global problem of strengthening civil society, rule of law, and genuine democracy.
Senator Clinton is just the person to design and lead a meaningful global public service program. Senator Clinton herself exemplifies a life devoted to public service (even when in private practice, she participated in a range of public service activities, and indeed supported her spouse and daughter so her husband could serve in public office). Taking that ideal and the reality of public service global is a mission Senator Clinton will lead with panache. She mobilized 18 million Americans to vote for her; she continues to provide a role model for men and women who are genuine progressives.
Lamentably but predictably, the NY Times characterizes Senator Clinton as hawkish; that seems wrong to me. She is an internationalist, a person involved already with global initiatives like Vital Voices. But that does not mean she is a conventional hawk, consistently favoring war. The NY Times seems to have begun braying early.
