Diplomacy in Crisis
The Cost to America and the World
Statement by the Board of American Diplomacy
In the span of a few weeks, the United States has experienced unprecedented shifts in its foreign policy on topics long considered broadly bipartisan and uncontentious. The United States has broken with its European allies over support for Ukraine, a democratic country invaded by Russia. Free trade with neighboring Canada and Mexico, our two top trading partners, is gone. The U.S. Agency for International Development — set up over 60 years ago to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help people recover from humanitarian crises — is also gone, with lethal consequences. Public service, long saluted, is denigrated, and the U.S. Department of State is preparing for dramatic staffing cuts. READ MORE
The American Diplomacy journal has focused its mission on presenting the voices of practitioners: commentaries and stories from people who “have been there.” With this section of the journal, we aim to do the same. What is at stake in the current diplomacy crisis can best be explained by those same voices, which we proudly share here with our readers.
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February 2026
The Editor’s Page
Commentary
The Invasion of Venezuela: A Serious Mistake and a Rupture of Traditional US Policies by Thomas E. McNamara
Performative Realism: The Dangerous Turn in US Foreign and Defense Policy by Matthew Frederick
Public Diplomacy in Single-Party States: The Case of China by Donald M. Bishop
Under Trump, America Violates Its Own Principles by Dick Virden
Eyewitness
“Sneaking and Peeking” in Bulgaria with the Future Director of the NSA and the CIA by Jonathan Rickert
Under Fire in Bonn by Donald Kursch
Remembering Cambodia Through USIA Films by Bea Camp
Links
Alexander Motyl and Thomas Graham have debated in The National Interest the merits of containment versus competitive coexistence as policies for dealing with Russia. Below are Motyl’s critique of competitive coexistence and Graham’s response.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/russia-doesnt-want-competitive-coexistence
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/competitive-coexistence-with-russia-isnt-appeasement
Below are the results of the American Foreign Service Association’s survey in August-September 2025 on the state of the Foreign Service. Some 2100 American diplomats responded, and the results are grim.
https://afsa.org/at-the-breaking-point
From Our Archives
To mark this year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we have selected three articles that examine US foreign policy since the beginning of this century.
Militarism and the Malpractice of Diplomacy by Chas Freeman, May 2016
Does History Take Sides, by Michael W. Santos, June 2011
https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2011/06/does-history-take-sides/
America after the Meltdown, by Chas Freeman, October 2008
https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2008/10/america-after-the-meltdown/