Congratulations to Susan Rice, who will be appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations tomorrow as part of President-elect Obama’s rollout of his National Security team.

I’ve never worked directly for Susan, but I’ve had the opportunity to work with her, both when I was at State (and she was Assistant Secretary for African Affairs) and since then.  She’ll make an outstanding Ambassador, helping to bring to an end whatever residual hostility remains from the Bolton era.

Two brief observations:

1.  According to the NYT, Obama will return USUN to Cabinet rank, a position it has held for most of the past thirty years.  That is a strong indication of just how seriously Obama regards the need to work multilaterally.  It’s no coincidence that the longest period that USUN was not in the Cabinet was during the Bush years.  This also means, contrary to some progressives’ (and Obama foreign policy experts’) fears, there will be a strong progressive voice at the Cabinet table.  What is not yet clear is whether Rice also will be a member of the principals committee that usually makes most foreign policy decisions.

2.  Rice faces a tremendous challenge:  working with UN states to achieve a number of important US goals while at the same time pushing the UN to continue its currently stalled efforts at reform.  Much like the USG itself, the UN is a mess.  There isn’t much that the US can do from outside to fix the problem, but Rice should not hesitate to be a vigorous advocate for change.  Her biggest obstacles will be the UN bureaucracy, which has viewed past reform efforts as challenges to their sinecures, and the developing world, which all too often has viewed the UN as a jobs program.

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