Why Hillary Clinton is a Terrible Choice as Obama's Secretary of State

What's needed is a new approach to foreign policy and the trouble with Hillary is that she comes with all the baggage of that Clinton era – the attempt to reach a Middle East peace balanced in favour of Israel, the reach to express US predominance in the post-Cold War, the re-ordering of alliances in Asia in favour of India against Pakistan and China against its neighbours and much more.

The only element that Hillary Clinton added in her time as New York Senator was a progressively more and more openly pro-Zionist stance, while the major swerve in Obama's foreign policy statements during the presidential election was to become more overt in his support of the Israeli government.

That's not going to help when the task requires a whole new approach to the Middle East and the way Washington defines its role in the new world of resurgent Islam, growing regionalisation of politics and waning American prestige and economic clout.

Robert Gates continuing as Defense Secretary, General James Jones as National Security Adviser and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State – these are not names to conjure up the promise of change or renewal.