Grandmaster Powell: before September 11, he seemed all but invisible, losing policy disputes to others in the Bush administration. What a difference a war makes.

• Author: Keller, Bill
• Position: National - Secretary of State Colin Powell

WITHIN THE HEAVILY FORTIFIED RESIDENCE OF the American ambassador in Islamabad, Secretary of State Colin Powell found himself dining last fall with his improbable new best friend, General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan.

Only months earlier, the Bush administration would have labeled Pakistan a terrorist-cradling rogue nation. But war changes everything, and Powell was now cementing relations with Musharraf, our partner in the war against the terrorists in neighboring Afghanistan.

As they dined, cell phones trilled--first in the pocket of Pakistan's head of intelligence, then in that of the CIA's station chief--with news that India was firing artillery in the disputed border province of Kashmir. India, which has fought three all-out wars with Pakistan in the last 50 years, was feeling jilted by the attention Powell was giving Musharraf. "It's a way of saying, `What about us?'" said one member of the Islamabad dinner party.

RETURN TO RELEVANCE

Such is the volatile new world of American foreign policy over which Colin Powell presides. And for now at least, he does preside--his comforting charisma, his ally-charming skills, and his experience of war all placed at a premium by the terror attacks of September 11.

Before the attacks, the conventional wisdom about Powell was reflected in an end-of-summer Time magazine cover that asked, "Where Have You Gone, Colin Powell?" The new Secretary of State had become all but invisible, which is a serious liability in the corridors of Washington power. He had suffered several minor humiliations in which various Bush administration figures won policy disputes involving North Korea, global warming, and other issues.

But that's all changed now. The campaign against terror has created the kind of crisis-management world in which Powell thrives. And while Powell has his critics--many within the Bush administration and outside it believe that his view is naive or amoral in a dangerous world--at the moment he has one very important person in his corner: George W. Bush.

After September 11, Powell went to work quickly. By September 14, when he helicoptered to Camp David for dinner with Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, he had already won Musharraf's agreement that Pakistan would cooperate with the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. At Camp David he argued for a careful, methodical response.

PULLING BACK ON "SMACKING" IRAQ

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