State of Decay.

When Newt Gingrich launched his frontal assault on the State Department in 2003, in the context of the Iraq crisis, a lot of people applauded. "Without bold dramatic change at the State Department, the United States will soon find itself on the defensive everywhere except militarily. In the long run that is a very dangerous position for the world's leading democracy to be in. Indeed in the long run that is an unsustainable position." Four years later, you have to admire the man's prescience.

Not long after Mr. Gingrich broached the subject, Congress mandated a review of the State Department's structure and the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid, oversight of which today is one of the functions of the department. In 2004 and 2005, a commission was set up to make recommendations and the fruit of its labors was published earlier this month in "Beyond Assistance: Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People around the Globe." (The subtitle adds up to the acronym HELP.) The report comes out at a time when debate within the foreign policy community is centered on the concept of "smart power" — a Joseph Nye-ish term that is also the title of a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The concept of smart power has been embraced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others, who called for a "dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security — diplomacy, strategic communication, foreign assistance, civic action and economic reconstruction and development."

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