“Jake Sullivan: Minneapolis Native among Those to Hatch Iranian Nuclear Deal”, 2013-11-27 ():
It says something about Jake Sullivan that “Supreme Court law clerk” is among the least-notable lines on his résumé.
The Minneapolis native is one of a small handful of American diplomats whose secret meetings with Iranian officials reportedly helped lay the groundwork for a nuclear deal announced over the weekend.
…Policy-making ‘imperfect’: White House officials didn’t make Sullivan available for an interview for this article, but he laid out a lot of details about his career and personal governing philosophies while speaking at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School last spring.
Sullivan talked about attending a climate-change conference in Copenhagen that didn’t end until 2 a.m. when everyone from French President Nicolas Sarkozy on down was stranded in a blizzard. He told about a time in Liberia when he and Clinton listened to a lecture on a local caterpillar infestation. He described his reaction the first time he walked into a behind-the-scenes meeting at the Supreme Court or the Situation Room.
“There must be another room, somewhere down the hall, where the real meeting is happening, where the real experts are, making the real decisions”, he said. “Because it can’t just be us. It can’t just be this. You know what? Turns out that it is.”
He told graduates he’d always wanted to work in public policy after college, and that when he entered the arena, he was surprised at how personal it was—and, because of that, how imperfect it is, as well.
“Public policy is a study in imperfection”, he said. “It involves imperfect people, with imperfect information, facing deeply imperfect choices—so it’s not surprising that they’re getting imperfect results.”
Sullivan advised the graduates to get in the game as soon as they could, that in the “imperfect world” of policy-making, the most important thing is getting as many voices to the table as possible.
“We’re all just trying to make something good happen”, he said. “What this means for you is that you have standing to contribute to the debates and the decisions. Right now, today. Not later, not at some future date when you’re older or more experienced or battle-hardened. Now.”