US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday launched a reform of US diplomacy that will turn ambassadors into corporate-like CEOs tasked with helping a country develop and avoid armed conflict.

Wary of Republican calls for cost-cutting, Clinton promised that the reforms at the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, USAID, seek to "minimize costs and maximize impacts, avoid overlap and duplication."

In a speech marking the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, Clinton pledged to enhance America's civilian power overseas, drawing from experts not only in the State Department but across the federal government.