At a December 11 State Department briefing on diplomacy in the Western Hemisphere, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the “new architecture of cooperation” the United States is working to build with its “partners” in the Western Hemisphere:

“We have, more than ever in today’s world, the chance to cooperate, collaborate, and innovate. It’s why the United States is committed to building what I’ve called a new architecture of cooperation, one where we leverage all the tools at our disposal, our diplomacy, our development efforts, civil society, the private sector, through crosscutting partnerships that are really necessary if we’re going to address and hopefully solve the complex problems we confront.”