Names: Sheba Crocker is the new #2 at State’s Policy Planning shop
Sheba Crocker has begun her new role as principal deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, the number two slot behind new Policy Planning Director Jake Sullivan. The State Department didn’t announce that Crocker had been promoted to the influential post, but the nameplate outside her new office revealed her new title, ...
Sheba Crocker has begun her new role as principal deputy director of the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, the number two slot behind new Policy Planning Director Jake Sullivan.
The State Department didn’t announce that Crocker had been promoted to the influential post, but the nameplate outside her new office revealed her new title, and two State Department officials confirmed to The Cable that she has begun her new job. Crocker was chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and previously worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a senior associate with the CSIS Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project.
Crocker has also previously worked as the deputy chief of staff to the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for tsunami recovery, former President Bill Clinton, and on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration, where she also worked for Steinberg. This is a major promotion for one of Steinberg’s key protégés.
Crocker is set to have more responsibility and more influence than her predecessor Derek Chollet, who nevertheless was very influential at State before he moved over to the National Security Staff as its new senior director for strategic planning. Sullivan is now dual-hatted as director of policy planning and as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, and maintains active involvement in working directly for Clinton as her voice inside the State Department on a host of issues.
The thinking inside State is that Sullivan will be so busy doing both jobs that Crocker will naturally take on more of the day to day management responsibilities at policy planning. Sullivan even kept his desk in Clinton’s personal office, meaning that Crocker is now the highest ranking official who actually sits in the policy planning shop each day.
Her experience on civilian security issues and post conflict reconstruction will come in handy as she helps lead State’s effort to drastically increase its presence and role in Iraq as U.S. military forces withdraw.
Crocker is also the daughter of is the daughter of U.S. diplomat Chester Crocker.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
More from Foreign Policy
Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.
Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.
It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.
Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.
Sign up for Morning Brief
Foreign Policy’s flagship daily newsletter with what’s coming up around the world today. Delivered weekdays.
By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. You may opt out at any time.
