Whoever calls "cablegate" the 9/11 of diplomacy is guilty of exaggeration. I read some of the communications and personally think they are simply captivating. Most of them cover topics and opinions of more-than-common knowledge. We already knew, for instance, that the Saudis recently performed an air-defence shutoff drill, to allow Israeli planes to fly over the kingdom en route to bombing Iran. Is it a surprise to anyone, then, that the Saudi king himself wanted the US to do the dirty work in this Shia-Sunni struggle?
There is scope for scandal, as in any revelation of secret correspondence. Yet the laying bare of the nuts and bolts of diplomacy reveals, if anything, a greater amount of judgment and knowledge than we could ever have credited the American government with. Honestly, Washington would be quite daft not to take all this analysis into account, which they fail to do on a staggeringly regular basis.
I repeat: if Washington had used this intelligence fully, it would mess up its policies less often than it does now.
I repeat: if Washington had used this intelligence fully, it would mess up its policies less often than it does now.
Two cables, among the ones I read, really struck me as masterpieces of analysis. One is from the outgoing Ambassador to Zimbabwe (here), where we catch a rare glimpse behind all rhetorics into what really happens in that country. Another, much closer to home, comes from Moscow and deals with a diplomat's experience of a wedding in the Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a part of Russia. (here)
If you're lazy, read only the last paragraphs from the latter, and you might understand why many state-building strategies tried in Afghanistan have failed. That one memo, in that God-forsaken country, could help us more than Macchiavelli's Prince in cracking the Afghan government model. Not top-down, but a patchwork of loyal local elders and warlords.
Anyone studying Intelligence Gathering 101 will, soon, be given a copy of this memo from the Department of State regarding, of all things, anti-American murals in Teheran being removed. It's the most exhaustive background and analysis guide I've seen about such a trivial topic.
Favourite quote: the President of Yemen saying he doesn't mind whiskey smuggling into his ward, as long as it's good stuff and doesn't come with firearms and drugs.
All in all, these leaked cables hardly show collusion or some sort of conspiracy. They instead, in the majority of cases at least, paint a picture of diplomats and leaders who know exactly what's going on and can see through each other's lies. Imperfections and ignorance, such as Netanyahu being oblivious to the need for good and efficient governance in Palestine, merely confirm deductions based on previous behaviour patterns. The "Honesty Award" goes to the aide to Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Zhang Yannian, and His Excellency himself. The quote deserves to be reproduced in its entirety.
"This is all about money," he said. He understood from the Kyrgyz that they needed $150
million. The Ambassador explained that the U.S. does provide $150 million in assistance to Kyrgyzstan each year, including numerous assistance programs. Zhang suggested that the U.S. should scrap its assistance programs. "Just give them $150 million in cash" per year, and "you will have the Base forever." Very uncharacteristically, the silent young aide then jumped in: "Or maybe you should give them $5 billion and buy both us and the Russians out." The aide then withered under the Ambassador's horrified stare.
The aide's sole mistake was to simply sum up the total aid packages offered by China and Russia. The young and naive soul forgot the extra fee for keeping it quiet and converting it all to cash, about 3 billion. One for each interested party (Kyrgyz, Chinese and Russian).
This is not diplomacy's 9/11, yet. For those who believed they had US diplomats fooled, this will be a wake-up call. To everyone else, it's business as usual and some great insight. At least half of these memos are materials worthy of international relations textbooks, pity no-one can profit from them now.
Wikileaks' FAQ section is full of idealistic notions of principles, government accountability, human rights and other noble aspects of how human existence should proceed. Some of Assange's endeavours have indeed caused sea-changes in public perception. The latest is, as far as I can see and guess, a flop; aside from exposing the State Department's obsession with deluges of useless information (frequent flyer cards? come on!).
That countries are run differently from world affairs in general is no secret. A government has obligations to its citizens to rule transparently and account for what it does on home soil. Abroad, you're in a different world altogether. Diplomats must use local methods and knowledge to further their country's aims, even if by our standards they may seem objectionable. Julian Assange fails to grasp, apparently, the difference between living by your principles and impaling yourself on them.
Call me a cynic. I am grateful that leaders and diplomats, in private, aren't as callous, deluded and clueless as they seem in public. It is reassuring.
1 comment:
Good write-up. I was falling asleep going through them, so I ran to google, found some others had found much more interesting cables than any of the ones I had come across trying to read the entire thing.
But yeah, I like your conclusions. Though I'm still on the fence overall if I agree with what WIkiLeaks is doing, clearly this isn't the massive, globe-changing scandal every news outlet in the Western world is making it out to be. Kudos!
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