Nice guys don't always finish last. Soon after Gen. Colin Powell heard from President-elect George W. Bush that he was indeed to be nominated secretary of state, he picked up the telephone and asked someone he has known for years to join his team as the next assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs -- a difficult but important position. This means that, in the designedly decentralized new Bush administration, Powell will become the archbishop of U.S. foreign policy and nice guy James A. Kelly his vicar for Asia.

Kelly's resume reads as if he has been preparing for this position all his life. For nearly a decade, this quiet American has resided in Hawaii, demographically as well as geographically the U.S. state closest to Asia, and has of late been the guru in charge of the Pacific Forum, the Honolulu-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. As its president, Kelly, a former Navy captain, has made many friends, few enemies and no waves.

That basic personality profile extends back to the 1980s, when Powell was President George Bush's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Kelly served as senior director for Asian affairs on the White House National Security Council. Powell liked Kelly in part for the reason so many people do: He is a careful, sincere listener whose personal and professional confidence allows him to take "no" for an answer when challenged by a convincing but dissenting point of view. Not surprisingly, the overall initial reaction in the U.S.-Asia policy community is positive. According to Charles E. Morrison, head of the influential East-West Center in Hawaii, "He's a very good listener with a wide range of contacts in America and Asia. The last thing Asians want is Americans who push their own policy agenda without listening to them. So this is a superb appointment." Stanley Roth, the astute current assistant secretary of state for Asia, who is now cleaning out his office in anticipation of Kelly's confirmation, agreed: "He's not some wild-eyed ideologue that's going to try to swing U.S. policy this way or that. Frankly, I'm relieved."