The Obama Administration is in its earliest days, but it was certainly encouraging to see the President make an early visit to Foggy Bottom and the State Department. Many within the State Department feel the role of diplomacy had been increasingly marginalized over the last eight years, and the visit by Obama and Vice President Biden was clearly meant to change the tone. It is also telling that the President and Secretary of State Clinton used the moment to unveil two heavy hitter special envoys Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (for Afghanistan-Pakistan issues) and former Senator George Mitchell (for the Middle East). I can’t recall a time when two such senior envoys were rolled out so early within an administration (readers please correct me if I’m wrong). The choice of these two men as special envoys would seem to indicate that peacemaking will again be a central part of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. Now we would like to see someone with similar gravitas as a special envoy for Sudan.