Lessons from ex-U.S. diplomats (UPDATED BELOW)

Today I want to call your attention to two recent speeches, each by an experienced U.S. diplomat. Both of these men had lengthy, varied, and distinguished careers, both served as ambassadors to important U.S. allies, and both are solidly rooted in a realist view of foreign policy. For all these reasons, their remarks are well worth pondering.

The first is by retired Ambassador Charles ("Chas") Freeman, who served the U.S. government in a variety of capacities over more than thirty years. And he would be serving our country today as chairman of the National Intelligence Council had he not been the target of a vicious and baseless smear campaign by prominent figures in the Israel lobby. (Obama’s failure to defend the appointment was an early warning sign of his spinelessness on this general issue).

In any case, Freeman recently gave a fascinating lecture at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, entitled "America’s Faltering Search for Peace in the Middle East: Openings for Others?" Apart from being beautifully written, it is also one of the clearest and most common-sensical analyses of our predicaments there that I have read recently. Here’s just one small excerpt (you really owe it to yourself to read the whole thing):

In foreign affairs, interests are the measure of all things. My assumption is that Americans and Norwegians, indeed Europeans in general, share common interests that require peace in the Holy Land. To my mind, these interests include — but are, of course, not limited to — gaining security and acceptance for a democratic state of Israel; eliminating the gross injustices and daily humiliations that foster Arab terrorism against Israel and its foreign allies and supporters, as well as friendly Arab regimes; and reversing the global spread of religious strife and prejudice, including, very likely, a revival of anti-Semitism in the West if current trends are not arrested. None of these aspirations can be fulfilled without an end to the Israeli occupation and freedom for Palestinians.

Needless to say, the fact that someone with his experience, insight, and independence of mind was blackballed from further public service tells you a lot about why U.S. foreign policy keeps spinning off the rails.

The second talk that I recommend is by Robert Blackwill, who served as U.S. Ambassador to India and on the National Security Council during the Bush administration. (Interestingly, both Blackwill and Freeman were aides to Henry Kissinger at earlier stages in their careers). Blackwill recently delivered the second annual Ernest May Lecture to the Aspen Strategy Group, on the topic of "Afghanistan and the Lessons of History." Not surprisingly, his talk draws on many of the insights that May and Richard Neustadt developed about the perils of misplaced historical analogies and sloppy historical reasoning, but he offers plenty of intriguing nuggets of his own. And the "lessons" he draws about our Afghan experience ought to be on the desk of every ambitious "nation-builder" in Washington. Here they are:

• Ensure that the U.S. commitment in blood and treasure is clearly commensurate with U.S. vital national interests and does not push aside more important strategic challenges.
• Keep U.S. policy objectives feasible. No dreams allowed.
• Take into account that local realities dominate global constructs.
• Stay out of long ground wars in general, and especially stay out of long ground wars in Asia.
• Reject the notion that America has the capability to socially engineer far-off societies fundamentally different from our own.
• Be cautious about making counterinsurgency the U.S. Army’s core competence. Interacting with exotic foreign cultures on the ground, not to say dramatically changing them, is not exactly America’s comparative advantage.
• Accept that diplomacy is almost always a better instrument of U.S. national purpose than the use of military force.
• Remember that often purported worst case consequences of U.S. external behavior don’t ever happen, not least because we remain the most powerful and resilient country on earth.

There’s a lot of wisdom in those two speeches, and I recommend them highly. Among other things, they remind us that while you don’t have to be a realist to say smart things about foreign policy, it sure helps.

UPDATE:  The original post here inexplicably omitted links to the two speeches; I’ve added them now.