“For many of us who are working in environmental . . . economic . . .energy . . . science and technology issues, [this is] a very exciting day,” U.S. Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats said recently in announcing the establishment of the Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. “[Because] we are going to implement . . . a vision that Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton had articulated . . . and was encapsulated in one of the key recommendations of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.”
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which Secretary Clinton initiated, takes a proactive approach on the environment, economics, energy, science and technology; and reflects the critical role that these issues play in Secretary Clinton’s 21st century statecraft agenda. This new function is designed to promote new synergies and greater efficiencies in the State Department, establishing a cross-fertilization of ideas among the various functions, and finding ways in which different fields - energy, environment, economy and science - can mutually reinforce one another.
Under Secretary Hormats, who will head this newly formed function, said that it will be comprised of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, led by Assistant Secretary Kerri-Ann Jones; the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, led by Assistant Secretary Jose Fernandez; the Bureau of Energy Resources, led by Secretary Clinton’s Coordinator for International Energy, Carlos Pascual; and the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor, led by a distinguished scientist, Dr. Bill Colglazier. “Finally, we’re going to establish the Office of the Chief Economist of the State Department,” Under Secretary Hormats said. “We haven’t selected the individual yet, but this will be a person who both understands economic [and] financial issues, and how they relate to our broader foreign policy.”
“This announcement . . . is to implement Secretary Clinton’s commitment . . . to environmental sustainability, to energy security as fundamental elements in our overall foreign policy,” Under Secretary Hormats concluded. “We understand that we’re in a resource-constrained world . . . and we think that this combination of cross-fertilization and mutually reinforcing elements . . . is going to be a good way of utilizing . . . our human resources [and] our financial resources more efficiently.”
