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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

The Failings of U.S. Diplomacy

Refusing diplomatic contact gains the U.S. nothing.
U.N assembly

Chas Freeman delivered a very interesting speech to the Academy of Philosophy and Letters recently on the failures of U.S. diplomacy, and TAC published an adapted version of the speech yesterday. I thought this section was one of the most valuable:

The pernicious effects of sanctions are magnified by the American habit of combining them with diplomatic ostracism. Refusal to talk is a tactic that can gain time for active improvement of one’s bargaining position. But meeting with another party is not a favor to it [bold mine-DL]. Insisting on substantive concessions as the price for a meeting is self-defeating. Diplomatic contact is not a concession to an adversary but a means of gaining intelligence about its thinking and intentions, understanding and seeking to reshape how it sees its interests, looking for openings in its policy positions that can be exploited, conveying accurate messages and explanations of one’s own reasoning, manipulating its appreciation of its circumstances, and facilitating concessions by it.

One of the strangest failings in our foreign policy is the strong aversion to talking to hostile and rival states. Engagement is treated as if it rewards the other government, but it is an important part of any effort to secure our interests and achieving our policy goals in a given region. Hawks often deride diplomacy with Iran or normalization with Cuba as bestowing “legitimacy” on these governments, which is a very odd way to think about these things. Diplomacy doesn’t have to imply an endorsement of the regime with which the U.S. is dealing, nor does it convey approval of its activities. Having normal relations with another state is not a concession to it, but rather it is potentially an advantage for our government and an opening to establish closer contacts with the people of the country in question.

Cutting off diplomatic ties has not made unavoidable U.S. dealings with Iran over the last three and a half decades any easier or more successful. During the nuclear talks over the last two years, we have seen how much progress on a contentious issue can be made if top diplomats from the different sides are allowed to meet together on a regular basis. The U.S. needlessly blinds itself to the internal conditions and political developments in another country by refusing to have diplomatic ties with its government. That puts our government at a significant disadvantage when trying to make sense of the other government’s decision-making and intentions. It may be emotionally satisfying at some level to shun another regime, but it deprives the U.S. of information about and understanding of the other government. Refusing such contact gains the U.S. nothing, and deprives the U.S. of an opportunity to exercise influence and advance its interests.

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