It’s all-but-confirmed that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will exit the Obama administration as soon as possible.
Clinton’s departure leaves several serious foreign-policy challenges to an unknown successor.
Among them: The renewed campaign by the corrupt Ugandan government and some of its U.S. evangelical sponsors to enact a death penalty for homosexuals. (Uganda already punishes LGBT Ugandans with imprisonment up to 14 years, and it tolerates extrajudicial violence against gays, including the murder of activist David Kato.)
Can President Obama’s appointee successfully confront African governments’ atrocious human-rights records — as Clinton did — while still maintaining close enough ties to ward off China’s growing military relationships and radical Islamist rebel groups?
And will a lame-duck Obama administration have second thoughts about sacrificing human rights and human life in favor of so-called “free trade” in substantially unfree nations such as Colombia?
One can hope that the new secretary of state will increase public exposure of “The Family” — a network of powerful U.S. evangelicals which networks internationally to promote pseudo-Christian theocracy while undermining human rights and religious freedom.
But the lame-duck administration will continue to be tempted by the desire of “pragmatists” to smooth relations (especially business and military ties) with despotic governments that control geopolitically important locations around the globe.
