GENEVA — If anyone doubted that the "restart" button has been pushed on U.S. diplomacy, look no further than the T-shirt worn by a young gay rights advocate at a question-and-answer session in Belgium last week: "I [Heart] Hillary."
"I must call on this young man," the new secretary of State said.
In her trip through the Middle East and Europe last week, Hillary Rodham Clinton was warmly received in most places by audiences who are fascinated by the life of the former first lady -- and delighted that George W. Bush resides once more in Texas.
She was applauded vigorously by reporters at a news conference in Egypt, a highly unusual gesture from Arab journalists toward a U.S. official. Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, some of whom felt shut out by the Bush administration, grilled her in a private meeting on the Obama administration's intentions, then applauded as well.
Love-fests aside, Clinton moved with a speed few expected on her second voyage as secretary of State. Billed as no more than a modest "listening tour," Clinton's trip offered the most complete picture yet of how the new administration hopes to overhaul American relations with the world.
Clinton took steps toward possible new relationships with Syria and Iran that could redraw the map of the Middle East. She declared herself committed to plowing ahead to build a separate state for Palestinians, despite widespread skepticism about the prospects for such a project.
She held the administration's first high-level meeting with the Russians, trying to build a relationship around President Obama's willingness to take a new look at the controversial missile defense system that the Bush administration began erecting in Eastern Europe.
Yet the Obama administration's initiatives that intrigued the world last week merely represented an opening bid. The offers of better ties that Clinton put in motion followed the advice that the White House has been getting from many sides -- moderate Arab states and the Europeans, among other world powers.
In many ways, this was the easy part. The hard part, some administration officials acknowledge, lies ahead.
The administration has now made a series of gestures to try to win over the Syrians to a better relationship, a change that could deprive Iran, and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, of a key source of support. But the Syrians have done little in return.
