In just a few days Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China will meet in Vienna to discuss how to move forward with the JCPOA (Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) -- basically, the Iran nuclear deal of which William J. Burns was the primary mover opening up a "Back Channel" with Iran and enabling the P5+1 to step up into full flung negotiations... a process that might have taken years, or perhaps may have never occurred.
And yet, the United States will not be at that meeting, because as Trump so eloquently stated it was "the worst deal ever."
When we withdraw from the world's most pressing problems, put a hand over our mouths, and essentially walk out of the room, we leave Russia and China at the table with our closest allies, our old friends, and enable them to establish lines of communication around us, imagining a new global order that circumvents U.S. dominance, giving rise to thoughts of how things might be different without us at the head of the table.
These are certainly tremulous times, and William J. Burns book could not come at a more propitious moment.
If you just read the back cover of this book you'll find some of the most well respected political servants of our day starting with James Baker and ending with Condolezza Rice -- interspersed are also Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, John Kerry, and George Shultz. Books like this that draw the applause from such diametrically opposed political leaders hardly exist in our deeply divided world today. This is a book worth reading.
I am just shocked that within 4 months of it's publish date that it maintains such a low comment rating on Amazon. How is that possible? Burns is a gold mine of wisdom and political history, and his book ought to be standard reading for every foreign service diplomat and anyone looking to understand how the world really turns.
But, perhaps, it shouldn't be all that surprising as Burns himself concedes:
"Selling the practical virtues of diplomacy is a complicated undertaking. For all the debate about "hard power", "soft power", and "smart power" in recent years, diplomacy is most often about quite power, the largely invisible work of tending alliances, twisting arms, tempering disputes, and making long-term investments in relationships and societies. Diplomacy is punctuated only rarely by grand public break-throughs. Its benefits are hard to appreciate."
Diplomacy "is the patient accumulation of partial successes." - Kissinger
"... cutting funding for diplomacy would require him 'to buy more ammunition.'"- Jim Mattis
Burns definitely hits the nail on the head when he states that "demonstrating that diplomacy and international influence are aimed as much at facilitating and accelerating domestic renewal as they are at shoring up global order."
Threading that needle and getting the American populace to really see and believe that would take a miracle, I believe, but it's true, so true.
This book really does come at such an important time in our history coming off two "unilateral" wars where we did what we did because we could without taking the time to win "common cause" amongst our allies. We must recapture the art of diplomacy, or risk being sidelined by the "civilized" powers of the day that continue to believe and act like diplomatic channels still have a role.
So, in light of the important meeting in Vienna we need to pause as a nation and consider our assumptions that life will continue as it has with the U.S. at the head of the table while Russia and China begin to weigh in more heavily upon "solving" the key problems of our world today.
These final words of Burns ring almost prophetic:
"Pulling out of the nuclear deal alienated allies who had joined us in the effort for many years. Reimposition of U.S. sanctions in the face of opposition from partners further damaged a tool of policy already suffering from abuse, driving other countries to lessen reliance on the dollar and the U.S. financial system."
Could the July 28th meeting in Vienna spark a new world order -- a way around the U.S. financial system? Possibly. With Iran making so many missteps in the Gulf probably not right away, but we need to play our cards more wisely if we want to continue to lead the world.
Thank you, William J. Burns for your service to our country and for demonstrating to us all and recording it in this book the words that we all acknowledge deep down as essentially true, "Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far."
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