THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 21 What has defined American power is not our destructive capability but our constructive purpose. a new occupant in the White House. Some of these challenges reflect contests deeply rooted in regional rivalries or expressions of ambition long desired. But much in our world is malleable and can be shaped by active diplomacy that understands the world correctly. Understanding Today’s World In this regard, I would suggest the following propositions to refresh how we think about the world in which we live, work, judge, and act. First, our enemy is the status quo. We have many adversaries. Some will remain fixed over time; others will come and go. However, our enemy is the tendency to try to preserve our global position by freezing our advantages and our opponents’ weaknesses in time. This will not work. The United States has never been a status quo country. Our purpose was never to restore a past or preserve a present. It has always been about projecting ourselves into the future. When we have fought, it has always been about shaping the future. Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil War that we fight for a “vast posterity.” That is still true. Second, all politics are social. The biggest challenges facing government and the politics that underpin it will be inequality, contingency, and discontinuity. During a century of unprecedented wealth creation and technological advancement, there will be a relentless demand for access to the education, health care, security, and resources that people believe will allow them to define and determine their individual destinies. Today, migration is the most dramatic expression of this reality. Third, values matter. Power is an empty concept. Absent the purpose that values give to it, power is unsustainable over time. What has defined American power is not our destructive capability but our constructive purpose. Democracy is not just a form of government or the expression of a constitutional or institutional arrangement; it is also a fundamental moral commitment to the individual and to their right to self-expression. In other words, it is a commitment to an open society that empowers the individual. This commitment to values has given our democracy a human face and allowed us to step beyond formulated doctrines and discuss greater problems of human nature and destiny. Fourth, societies and cultures will drive relations between and among states. States will continue to be the fundamental building blocks of the global order. However, the expression of national interest will increasingly reflect the societies and cultures that reside within and across these states. This creates a larger panorama for communication and cooperation, one that gives an advantage to our own society because of its diversity, variety, and vast communication platforms. But it will also require us to use insight, sensitivity, and empathy to better understand the world we live in. Fifth, legitimacy will be determined by outcome. Process, such as free and fair elections and the peaceful transition of power, will remain an important cornerstone of political legitimacy. However, these processes must produce governments that can deliver results. In a world transforming itself, pleas to process will be viewed as efforts to entrench the status quo. For the purpose of American diplomacy, we must be able to show that democracy is capable of fundamentally transforming societies, but doing so peacefully and within constitutional and lawful structures. Beyond Outdated Ways Reflecting on these propositions will help us step beyond older and increasingly outdated ways of understanding the world. It will refresh our conversation with the American people and allow elected leaders to engage voters on issues and themes that are already part of the reality of the American public. It will also allow our career Foreign Service members to approach our elected and appointed leaders in a way in which the integrity and clarity of our voice can be heard. In his 1987 memoir, Present at the Creation, Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the generation of American diplomats who shaped the world after World War II as filled with “daring and buoyant determination,” but also defined by “ignorance of the true situation.” He wrote that the postwar period was “one of great obscurity to those who lived through it.” And, he said, “the significance of events was shrouded in ambiguity.” I believe that today’s American diplomats and national security professionals have the same daring and buoyant determination as Acheson and his colleagues, but we can make no claim to ignorance. Nor can we assert that the world is obscure or that the significance of events is unknown. We know what needs to be done, and we know why; and for that reason, we will be judged. n
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