Richard W. Murphy

Not everyone who takes over a new job inherits a checklist of "things to do" that is quite as intimidating as the one that greeted Richard Murphy when he became Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs last October. if the tasks ahead of him had been jotted down on paper by his secretary in the form of brief reminders, the listing might have read something like this:

Solve Arab-Israeli problem.
Keep Iran-Iraq war from spilling over.
Do something about Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
Keep track of Muammar Qadhafi's activities in Chad.
Cool off fighting in the Western Sahara.
Make sure people of Bangladesh get enough food to eat.

Even these items would represent only part of the list—but, fortunately for Ambassador Murphy, he is not expected to accomplish these chores all by himself. Although the bureau which he heads, usually referred to as NEA (pronounced "enn-ee-aye"), is the principal advisor to the Secretary of State on developments taking place along the arc stretching from Morocco to Bangladesh—just as the State Department is the principal advisor to the President on matters of foreign policy as a whole—there are, of course, many other players. Inside State, a number of bureaus and divisions make an impact on the Secretary's Middle East policy-making, and at the cabinet level a host of departments and agencies in addition to State influence the President as he comes to his decisions.

Constant Interchange

"The extent to which others in the Department get into policy-making depends on the type of crisis and the intensity of it," says Ambassador Murphy. "Take Lebanon. NEA was certainly not alone among the counsellors to the Secretary on how we should best manage that particular crisis. One of the many units involved, for example, was the Bureau of European Affairs—because among other things our marines there were part of a multinational force. You also had the functional bureaus, such as politico-military, policy planning, Congressional relations, and so forth, getting into the act. On all critical issues there is a constant interchange within the Department—and, quite frankly, a succession of endless meetings."

Does Ambassador Murphy, carrying out NEA's role as a coordinator,eventually go to the Secretary of State and hand him an agreed position on an issue?

"Ideally," Ambassador Murphy says, "we would have a single paper—but the Secretary does not want a lowest-common-denominator kind of agreement. When there is disagreement, he wants to be aware of it, with dissenting opinions very clearly highlighted. It's no service to him to evade or homogenize the issues."

Once the Secretary has established his position, Ambassador Murphy sometimes goes with him to cabinet-level conferences where final agreement is thrashed out with the Department of Defense, the various intelligence agencies, and other bodies. But more often than not, he helps prepare the Secretary for meetings restricted to "principals only"—i.e., to the Secretary and his peers.

An important part of the Assistant Secretary's job is to testify on the Hill—explaining Administration policies to often acerbic and sometimes hostile Senators and Congressmen. "This is a new experience for me," says Ambassador Murphy, who before coming into his job had served as ambassador in four countries: Mauritania, Syria, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, in that order. "It's been a long-standing policy that we normally don't ask our ambassadors to testify. But I'm learning. In fact"—he looks almost surprised at the very thought—"I think I'm even beginning to like it!"

"Arabist" Finally Makes It

Ambassador Murphy is the first assistant secretary for NEA who has emerged from the Department's formal program for training specialists in the Arab world—in other words, he is the first official "Arabist" in the job. He is also only the second one who has spent the bulk of his career on the ground in the Middle East.

Since "Arabist" is a perjorative word for many in the U.S.'s pro-Israel community—who argue that by learning Arabic and serving in Arab countries a diplomat somehow loses his objectivity—there were many observers who believed that domestic political sensitivities would keep an Arabist from making it to the top Middle East job. Asked whether this perception about Arabists had made his work difficult, Ambassador Murphy replied:

"At the beginning there was, indeed, some skepticism that I would be balanced and fairminded. But I think the fact that I have been criticized from all parts of the political spectrum for various statements that I have made at public forums has put these doubts to rest."

Ambassador Murphy entered the foreign service in 1955 after two years in the army, and was posted in Aleppo, Salisbury, Jidda, Amman and Washington (once as country director for Arabian peninsula affairs) before starting on his string of ambassadorships. He has degrees from both Harvard University and Cambridge University, is married and has three children.