Cicero said, “An army abroad is of little use unless there is prudent counsel at home.” A number of the Commentary articles in this issue note that our country is suffering through an administration that not simply eschews prudent counsel in its approach to foreign policy, but often systematically rejects it. Dan Kurtzer contrasts the diplomatic work that went into setting up the 1991 Madrid Conference with the confused efforts Trump envoys Wittkoff and Kushner are making to deal simultaneously with three complex issues: Gaza, Iran, and Russia/Ukraine. Luke Zahner sees current US policy afflicted with planlosigkeit, the condition of lacking a specific plan. Chris Datta draws lessons from how the US enabled a successful regime change in Liberia to illustrate why it has so often failed elsewhere under both this and preceding administrations. The Wentling and Ruth articles offer, respectively, prospective and retrospective prudent counsel for US assistance and public affairs efforts abroad. The final Commentary offers a Sahrawi activist’s appreciation for the efforts of two US diplomats to find what he considers a just approach to resolving this long-standing dispute.
In the Links section, we’ve highlighted an article that draws on Clausewitz to point out that we are facing defeat in Iran because our leaders resorted to the tactical instrument—military force—without defining the strategic objective it would be used to achieve. We’ve also provided links to a number of our archived articles on the Middle East and Iran that are relevant to today’s crises.
Our three Eyewitness articles offer the reader glimpses at the realities of diplomatic life, which regular readers of this publication will have realized often differs from public perceptions.
We have as usual given attention in this issue to the efforts of two of our sister organizations–the American Foreign Service Association and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training—both of which are needed now more than ever.