There's A New Gun In Town

Rice has wanted to boost the South Asia bureau ever since she took over from Colin Powell for whom the region was a sum total of Al Qaeda and Pakistan. But Rice began with a flurry of changes, deals, ideas and demanded a new cohesion in the bureaucracy. Rice let Rocca continue for a year but made it known that she wanted a person who could better manage the often fractious inter-agency process and implement the changes. Rocca was "pleasant but ineffective" in the fights between the non-proliferation bureau and the South Asia department.

Boucher, a senior foreign service officer with the rank of career minister, has parried and blocked tough questions from journalists under six secretaries of state either as spokesman or deputy spokesman. A professional, he was sworn in at the end of 2000 as the US's public face. What does he mean for India? Well, no background in the region means no baggage.