Undiplomatic Diplomacy
Senator Paul is spot on about not only this administration, but also the previous ones. American foreign policy establishment is amateurish, arrogant, doesn’t know and doesn’t care about diplomacy. They only use the stick and more sticks, forgetting the carrot. Seeing how the State department conducts “diplomacy,” people in the Pentagon might think, “Hey, that’s our job!”
Diplomacy is characterized by having mature experts engage each other in avoiding conflict while striving to defend or advance the interest of one’s own nation. The implications of bruteness in diplomacy might not be obvious when dealing with allies, but, when facing adversaries, not only could a nation fail to advance their interest, but the situation would also move in the opposite direction. With their poor judgement and lack of diplomacy, furthermore, foreign policy makers often double down on their missteps, further exposing their immaturity to the world.
America is a young nation, which makes me wonder if that is why American foreign policy makers conduct diplomacy like immature teenagers amongst diplomats from around the world. Knowing they represent a nation with a strong hand in most situations, they simple-mindedly overplay that hand with threats only, missing any kind of subtleness in what we know as diplomacy, let alone employing incentives in exchange for others’ cooperation. From the perspective of others, as a result, the State department officials are rude (especially behind closed doors) and the US is a bully. America’s allies, who need the US for their economy and security, will shake their heads but comply. But adversaries are not as forgiving. Take China for example. US’s public threats, economic sanctions, and particularly the scolding delivered by Antony Blinken while in Beijing behind closed doors only make China act in the direction opposite to US’s wishes. Over recent years when competition and tensions between US and China have risen to new heights, unmistakenly China’s trade surplus vs US has continued to grow, its compression of Taiwanese military position has continued to tighten (as the separatist rhetoric intensifies), its relationship with Russia has continued to grow closer still, etc. Meanwhile, we see the US’s threatening rhetoric and posture continue to flare in a bipartisan manner.
Today, China is seen as US’s number one adversary, but it has not always been that way. In fact, the two nations were allies during the last decade of the Cold War. And then, with the US being the only hegemon post-Cold War, China kept its head down in its focus on national development while the US provided Most Favored Nation treatment and supported its entering the WTO in hopes of China’s Westernization and continued submission to the American unipole. However, when it became evident that that had been US’s wishful thinking, it became all salty and began to turn on China during the Obama administration, and scaled it up by Trump and Biden. The anger and frustration on the part of American foreign policy establishment arising from its own faulty assessment of China was manifested in its tantrums and reckless, self-damaging behavior toward China as well as doubling down when outcomes didn’t go its way.
While threatening China, the American foreign policy establishment concocted “China threat” in fearmongering and leads the charge against the rejuvenating old civilizational state. The question is: can the everyday American identify how exactly China threatens the US? Is it each time they bring home from store merchandise that is made in China? Or is it when someone loses their job even after waves of tariffs have been imposed on imported Chinese goods but no industry has ever come back to America? If you think about it—it is not the US but US hegemony that is being threatened! It is American foreign policy establishment’s idea of how it should rule the world that is being threatened. For the sake of their nation and the world, that foreign policy establishment needs to grow up and learn you can’t make your own country great by suppressing others—and it is irresponsible to act on that fantasy!