Last Monday, something interesting happened. Real people got to ask questions of the Democratic Presidential candidates. While the sheer volume of candidate makes a proper debate a practical impossibility, Anderson Cooper did a relatively good job pointing the questions at candidates whose answers would prove interesting.
The big one, for me, wasn’t that important until I started seeing the direction the public response was taking. Here’s the short version of the most popular narrative: Obama’s naive, Hillary’s commanding, and Edwards is the guy we all wish were leading the pack. I want to challenge that narrative, but first, the details.
QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat (then-President of Egypt) traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.
In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?
COOPER: ….Senator Obama?
OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.
And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We’ve been talking about Iraq — one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they’re going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.
They have been acting irresponsibly up until this point. But if we tell them that we are not going to be a permanent occupying force, we are in a position to say that they are going to have to carry some weight, in terms of stabilizing the region.
COOPER: ….Senator Clinton?
CLINTON: Well, I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year. I will promise a very vigorous diplomatic effort because I think it is not that you promise a meeting at that high a level before you know what the intentions are.
I don’t want to be used for propaganda purposes. I don’t want to make a situation even worse. But I certainly agree that we need to get back to diplomacy, which has been turned into a bad word by this administration.
And I will pursue very vigorous diplomacy.
And I will use a lot of high-level presidential envoys to test the waters, to feel the way. But certainly, we’re not going to just have our president meet with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and, you know, the president of North Korea, Iran and Syria until we know better what the way forward would be.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Senator Edwards, would you meet with Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il?
EDWARDS: Yes, and I think actually Senator Clinton’s right though. Before that meeting takes place, we need to do the work, the diplomacy, to make sure that that meeting’s not going to be used for propaganda purposes, will not be used to just beat down the United States of America in the world community.
But I think this is just a piece of a bigger question, which is, what do we actually do? What should the president of the United States do to restore America’s moral leadership in the world. It’s not enough just to lead with bad leaders. In addition to that, the world needs to hear from the president of the United States about who we are, what it is we represent.
COOPER: Time.
EDWARDS: That, in fact, we believe in equality, we believe in diversity, that they are at the heart and soul of what the United States of America is.
Apologies for the massive quote block, but I think the juxtaposition is excellent. The candidates are asked “Will you meet with people who are avowed enemies of the United States?” Obama says: “Yes, because not doing so has been disastrous.” Clinton says: “I’d like to, but I’m not going to let these people screw America over with it.” Edwards says: “Bad diplomacy is a leadership problem, and if we want to regain a position of leadership we have to earn it.”
I want to be absolutely clear about this: Any of these three would represent a massive improvement over the Bush Administration’s “diplomatic” “policy.” However, they represent three different degrees of change.
Clinton’s position is the most Bush-esque on this topic. I appreciate that she is wary of foreign leaders who have a bad track record of playing along with American interests, but she leaves herself an awful lot of room to ease away from actively engaging Kim, Chavez, Castro, et al.
Edwards’ position is the classiest pivot I’ve seen in a while, and positions him squarely between Clinton and Obama. He refuses to commit to anything other than the lofty goals of doing good things. I like Edwards a lot, but I’ve never enjoyed him in a wonkish way. He hits me more like puppies and kittens and rainbows.
Obama takes the strongest position, and holds it. Unfortunately, since the debate his staff have done an incredible job of making it look like he really meant to say whatever it was that Hillary and John said. It’s a real shame that someone with a strong and principled stand on international relations is scared he’s going to look weak. The right response to all the accusations of naivete, in my book, is to say simply “Of course I’m not going to let Kim Jung-Il walk out of here with the keys to Air Force One. Come on. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to say no when one of the most anti-American leaders in the world asks for a sit-down.”
Anyone who’s taken a basic introduction to International Relations will recall a little thought experiment called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. I urge to to familiarize yourself with this Wikipedia page, or the rest of this might sail over your head. The conclusion is this: in any indefinitely repeating, iterated two-player game absent reliable communication, both players will seek to maximize self-interest over seeking to maximize the interest of the group. With high frequency, players will go so far as to “shoot themselves in the foot in order to stab another player in the back,” as my Intro IR professor put it.
The key to any Prisoner’s Dilemma situation is that players have little or no idea how any other player will behave, and they are unable to collude or cooperate actively. As a result, each player develops the defensive assumption that the other will betray him, and they simultaneously prove one another correct.
I love peace. And if we want to make it, keep it, and share it, we must be willing to talk to anyone. We must especially talk to those who would destroy us if they could. Peace can only be found through dialogue and through the intertwining of common interests.
Comments, as always, are encouraged.