Above photo: The U.S. added a “win-win proposition” to the classic ideologies that were limited to “I win, you lose” diplomacy, says veteran Foreign Service officer Paul Berg (right). Jeffrey Waitkevich | The Crow’s Nest
By Jeffrey Waitkevich
Diplomacy has changed the way people go to war, and America has played a heavy hand in it.
At the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs on Friday, four diplomats discussed how important diplomacy is in every international conflict and how it is evolving.
Their panel was titled “War vs. diplomacy: Which one, when?”
Moderator Pierre Guerlain, a professor emeritus of American Studies at Université Paris-Nanterre, France, said that the early description of diplomacy was summed up in Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote, “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Now, Guerlain asked, “When do you use the big stick?”
During World War I, all the world’s powers wanted to avoid war but accepted it because diplomacy was absent, said Charles Skinner, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer who teaches courses on foreign policy and diplomacy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
According to Paul Berg, a member of the U.S. Foreign Services since 1983, diplomacy originated on the ideology that using words were important for countries to win wars. Then the U.S. brought in the “uniquely American win-win proposition,” he said.
This idea that would allow everyone to benefit is the key to diplomacy, said Skinner, since a reconstruction project with everyone involved would make terrorism extremely difficult because “they’re attacking the whole world.”
“There are problems in the world,” said Skinner. “Usually these problems are bigger than any country in the world, bigger than the United States. What (the world) needs to solve them is cooperation.”
Former ambassador Herman J. Cohen, who retired after serving as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President George H. W. Bush, noted that the biggest change has been in communication.
Before the instant messaging of today, Cohen said, he was only able to receive messages during a set time frame at his location in Africa. He said that he found out President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated when he received a call that required phone lines to be turned on after hours.
Despite the revamped communication abilities and realization that unity was necessary for success, there is still room for improvement, Berg said.
America still doesn’t have the necessary institutions for success, he said, and when it does succeed, it is usually because of the efforts of individuals.
