Condi Rides Again!
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former National Security Council chief Stephen Hadley are teaming up as the latest participants in the endless battle of the groups, such as: the Kissinger Group, the Scowcroft Group, the Chertoff Group and other outfits of that genre.
The official launch of the RiceHadley Group, which styles itself as a “strategic advisory firm” for international companies, is scheduled soon. The firm registered its Web site domain name in October.
It will not be exactly a localized operation. Rice, who was Hadley’s boss at the National Security Council during Bush’s first term, will be teaching at Stanford while Hadley remains in Washington as a senior adviser for international affairs at the government-funded think-tank the U.S. Institute of Peace. A third founding partner, Washington lawyer Anja Manuel, is also heading to Stanford to teach international studies.
Manuel was an aide from 2005 to 2007 to former undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns. Her firm bio says she “managed [Burns's] involvement in South and Central Asia policy, congressional outreach and legal matters. Among other projects, she negotiated the U.S.-India civilian nuclear accord, and helped to secure passage . . . of the India civilian nuclear legislation.” She was also “extensively involved in U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other issues,”
In case you are thinking of doing business overseas, especially in South Asia and supposed “emerging markets” in the Middle East and Latin America, you do want to get some serious strategic advice. To paraphrase Condi’s famous statement, you wouldn’t want to find your business under “a mushroom cloud.”
