Posted on 03/15/2026 2:06:28 PM PDT by Red6
Diplomacy is an instrument of strategy that great powers use to survive and gain an advantage in competition with other powerful states. Excellence in diplomacy is a vital prerequisite to the success and endurance of great powers. Diplomatic skills atrophied in the United States after the end of the Cold War, as we came to rely on military technology and economic sanctions as the main tools of our foreign policy. But now we are entering a dangerous age in which great powers are competing for the things they have competed over from the beginning of time: territory, resources, influence, and prestige. In this setting, the United States will need to recover the lost art of diplomacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at imprimis.hillsdale.edu ...
For anyone not familiar with this publication, they put out some information and well thought out material.
Obviously I post this because I think it's relevant for today.
Trump is the exception. He's the first president post Cold War that actually sets relevant and achievable national priorities, forms alliances where it matters, is measured, predictable and rational yet scares people, and has a strategic perspective (energy, security policies are perfect examples).
Folks like Biden, Obama, Clinton, even Bush flopped around and often had no true end state in mind when they went into Iraq or Afghanistan, started a war in Ukraine, had big corporations and a few oligarchs dictate our trade policies regards China (PRC), chased opinion polls and latched onto pop culture trash issues like the gay agenda or climate change.
Mismanaging and massive corruption like that at a scale large enough and long enough, will eventually bring our great nation to its knees (inflation, internal security threats, ineffective Department of War, failing infrastructure and social services...).
Received this in the mail. My only thought was that it was released before the mission.
I’m not wild about negotiating with people who’ve been chanting “death to America” for the last 40 years.
I feel like our diplomatic approach for some decades has been — “We will give you everything you ask for. After you get everything you want, we can “circle back” and discuss the things that we want. And if, at that point, you decide that we don’t get anything, then we will just accept that.”
I think Trump has a new approach. It’s not polite. It doesn’t involve gentle words over wine and cheese. But it gets the US what the US wants. So I like it just fine.
Diplomacy was used last century and we ended up with WW1 and WW2 and many other wars.
Yeah. Diplomacy is only as good as the diplomats. And ours have been horrible and corrupt for 50:years. And getting worse.
The Soviet Union, contemporary Russia, and China have never respected diplomatic norms and the US came out of the Cold War with no peers.
This is quite unlike the post-Congress of Vienna world of European diplomacy, which in any case failed in 1914.
There was never any "international order" after 1914. There was only the post-1945 American international order that lasted only as long as the US supported it and that support only remained as long as it was in US interests to support it.
That is no longer the case, and Trump is reminding everyone else what the world looks like if the US stops being the chump supporting the "international order" while everyone else grifts.
We haven’t had any diplomats/statesmen worthy of the name for about 35 years. We had some very good ones during the Cold War, but Clinton tossed them aside for the likes of Wolfowitz and his ilk. Perhaps it’s a lost art to us by now.
Diplomats:(
Less Jaw-jaw, more war-war
Famous diplomats according to AI:
Henry Kissinger (U.S.): Shaped U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, negotiated the Vietnam ceasefire, and opened relations with China.
Hillary Clinton (U.S.): Served as the 67th U.S. Secretary of State, strengthening U.S. diplomatic professionalism and relations.
Ban Ki-moon (South Korea/UN): Eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, focused on climate change and sustainable development.
Quote Origin: Diplomacy Frequently Consists in Soothingly Saying “Nice Doggie” Until You Have a Chance to Pick Up a Rock
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/12/18/diplomacy/
Carl von Clausewitz, On War, trans. Col. J.J. Graham. New and Revised edition with Introduction and Notes by Col. F.N. Maude, in Three Volumes (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & C., 1918). Vol. 1. Chapter: CHAPTER I: WHAT IS WAR?
This chapter contains Clausewitz’s most famous saying about war, that it is the continuation of politics (policy) by other means. Here is the passage in full:
24. WAR IS A MERE CONTINUATION OF POLICY BY OTHER MEANS.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/clausewitz-war-as-politics-by-other-means
Not the best examples. LOL
Diplomacy: Words Don't Always Solve Problems. Sometimes You Just Have to Punch an Alien in the Face.
He's not playing youth softball with Iran. He's pitching that hard small ball right for the head: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanball
First Trump reimposed sanctions right away.
Then he bombs their nuclear development sites.
Now he bombs their political and military leadership and communications (Command and Control), IRGC, missile and drone building facilities, missile launch sites, air defense, and navy.
If Iran does not tap out I would guess (my prediction), next comes oil refineries, pipelines, depots, wells, bridges, tunnels, power production, transformer stations, rail stations, water desalinization plants, port facilities, airfields, barges, ferries, train engines, dams (588 of them), communication switch stations, bureaucratic facilities that keep the country running. Cripple them economically.
In either case, even if Iran does not agree to any of our demands, we still win.
Winning: Iran's ability to project force and acquire nuclear weapons is greatly reduced.
How do you finance Hezbollah or arm the Houtis if you have no money yourself? How do you launch missiles without the launch platforms, or lacking the missiles themselves? How do you launch drones when the production facilities are rubble? How do you buy some of the required components from the Chinese without money? How do you build a nuke if the centrifuges are blown up, the test facilities are rubble, etc? It gets far harder for Iran to project force when their own internal security situation worsens because of the various groups in Iran which we are likely supplying with weapons, Intel, money, communications systems, safe haven in Iraq (like the Kurds and MEK - just two I know off top of my head, which can cross back and fourth) or you have groups like those wanting democracy or greater social liberalization like women...
It's still “negotiating,” but Trump is smart. He uses the language the Iranian leadership today understands.
They (Iran's leaders) truly are “thugs.” You're dealing with people that are operating on the lower rungs of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Appealing to morality, conventions, laws, not even the well-being of their own people are truly a concern for them. You're not even dealing with people (Iran's current regime) that are rational. The language this regime understands is no different than what some savage, uncultured and violent gang leader understands. Instead of gold teeth they have turbans, instead of saggy pants they wear a thoob.
Trump is going down the list and eventually if Iran doesn't agree to our conditions, the country will be a basket case.
Either case, we win.
"war is diplomacy by other means" Carl von Clausewitz
That list says it all. A veritable who's who of failed diplomacy and corruption.
You’re right and it’s sad.
- Scotty to Doctor McCoy and Helmsmen DePaul, after receiving orders from Ambassador Fox not to Fire on Eminiar 7.
Regards,
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