My team and I knew the danger of being overwhelmed by what we called “the tyranny of the inbox.” As a result, after soliciting ideas from my staff and the four deputy ambassadors,* I settled on several human rights concerns that I would try to address without much involvement from Washington—issues that would not only help specific individuals, but also perhaps boost the confidence of US diplomats who sometimes seemed to doubt America’s potential impact. We chose initiatives that I knew President Obama would support wholeheartedly, but which much of the bureaucracy beneath him did not
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