Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- If Colin Powell was Mr. Inside, Condoleezza Rice may be Ms. Outside.

When the former military hero arrived as secretary of state, the department's career diplomats stood in the building's lobby and applauded him for more than a minute. Rice probably won't get that reception when she arrives later this month, but she may bring the department a stronger role in policy-making.

Rice, unlike Powell, is a close personal friend of President George W. Bush. As his national security adviser, Rice -- whose Senate confirmation hearing opens today -- helped shape U.S. policy in Iraq, relations with Europe and the effort to prevent Iran and North Korea from building nuclear weapons. She has defended Bush's record in Afghanistan, Iraq and other trouble spots and, also unlike Powell, isn't likely to nurture or reflect any doubts career diplomats might have, analysts say.

``She plans on managing that building, she plans on making sure that the State Department actually helps carry out the president's policies and not ignore them or drag its feet,'' said Gary Schmitt, president of the Project for the New American Century, a Washington-based policy study group.

``She will be influential in the interagency process; the question is whether she, like Powell, will also listen to the building,'' said James Steinberg, a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration who's now director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy study group.

Reshaping Leadership

Rice already has started to reshape the department's leadership, naming U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick as her deputy. They worked together on the National Security Council under former President George H.W. Bush.

There probably will be a renewed dependence upon the State Department to help negotiate U.S. positions abroad, rather than impose them, said Kurt Campbell, a Pentagon and White House official in the Clinton administration.

``Because we are tied down militarily, and that tool is basically exhausted, it's going to mean diplomacy has much more sway,'' said Campbell, director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington policy study group.

The choice of Zoellick and the likely addition of Philip Zelikow, executive director of Sept. 11 Commission and another colleague of Rice from the previous Bush presidency, suggests she is forming an ``extraordinarily strategic and capable'' team, Campbell said.

Curbing Dissent

That might reduce the potential for problems such as those involving Iraqi reconstruction, which was marred by the failure of State Department and Pentagon officials to trust and work with each other, Campbell said.

``One of the biggest problems in the last government was not just that there was policy disagreements, but those policy disagreements never ended. They just went on and on and on,'' Campbell said.

Under Powell, top department officials chafed publicly and privately about such Bush decisions as invading Iraq, criticizing European allies who disagreed, sidestepping the United Nations and refusing to negotiate directly with North Korea, Schmitt and other analysts said.

Bush confronts a series of second-term decisions headed by Iraq, where the U.S. faces escalating costs and a dwindling international coalition. Bush must decide how long the U.S. can keep trying to help Iraqis form a democracy in the face of daily bomb attacks that are killing dozens of U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqis each month.

Iran, North Korea

With Iran, the challenge is to halt a suspected nuclear weapons program through sanctions and political pressure at a time when the European Union is beginning negotiations on a trade agreement with that country.

The U.S. also faces defiance from North Korea, which has refused to resume six-nation talks on the future of its nuclear weapons program. North Korea wants to negotiate with the U.S. alone; Bush has refused.

Under Powell, top State Department officials balked at some Bush policies, Schmitt said. Bush didn't even consult Powell before making his decision to invade Iraq, realizing he would be opposed, according to author Bob Woodward in ``Plan of Attack,'' a book based on interviews with top administration officials.

Other prominent dissenters include Charles Pritchard, the chief U.S. interlocutor with North Korea who left the department, complaining the administration wasn't working hard enough on negotiations, and several lower-level career diplomats who said Bush was insufficiently concerned with the damage that the Iraq war and other actions have done to world opinion of the U.S.

French President Jacques Chirac is slated to visit Bush next month in Washington for the first time since 2001, seeking to mend ties damaged by France's opposition to the Iraq war. That meeting will take place shortly before or after Bush's visit to the European Union and NATO headquarters in Brussels Feb. 22.

Nomination Hearing

Rice's nomination will be approved, lawmakers from both parties say. The Republican-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reserved two days for questioning, and the full Senate is expected to vote immediately afterward, perhaps before Bush takes his oath of office Thursday for a second term.

U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said he wants to find out during the hearing ``how much policy is set by the White House and by the State Department.''

``I have my concerns,'' Dodd said.

`Moderating Influence'

Senator Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he believes the choice of Rice means ``that the modest moderating influence of the State Department over the last four years will disappear, and that the next four years will be guided even more closely by the voices that shouted loudest in the first term, and that led our country into seriously flawed foreign policies.''

The committee's chairman, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, said Republicans will conduct a ``thorough'' examination of Rice's record. The committee's second-ranking Republican, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a frequent critic of Bush's policy in Iraq, has promised Rice ``some tough questions'' about her plans for the next four years.

Those now leaving the State Department, along with Powell, include Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage; Marc Grossman, the undersecretary for political affairs; William Burns, the assistant secretary for the Near East; James Kelly, the assistant secretary for Asia; and Elizabeth Jones, the assistant secretary for Europe.

Such extensive turnover is ``fairly standard,'' said Brookings' Steinberg.

It's likely that Rice, as did Henry Kissinger when he became secretary of state after first serving as national security adviser, will bring along her assistants and place them in top department positions, said retired Georgetown University professor Norman Birnbaum.

White House Policy

The question is whether Rice and her advisers will merely implement policies formulated at the White House or take advantage of the ``accumulated expertise'' of the State Department's career diplomats, said Birnbaum, a National Security Council adviser in the Carter administration.

Armitage, in an interview with National Public Radio, said he saw his job as giving Bush the State Department's best advice. ``When we've presented a president with a full menu of options -- and he is the only nationally elected leader -- he'll make a choice based on what he's heard, and we'll march on,'' Armitage said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Basken in Washington at pbasken@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 18, 2005 00:47 EST