The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2017 17 The Value and Purpose of American Diplomacy BY WI L L I AM J . BURNS William J. Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014, after a 33-year diplomatic career, with the rank of Career Ambassador. He is only the second serving career diplomat in history to serve as Deputy Secretary of State. Prior to his tenure as Deputy Secretary, Amb. Burns served as under secretary for political affairs (2008-2011), ambassador to Russia (2005-2008), assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs (2001-2005) and ambassador to Jordan (1998-2001). He also served as executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at Embassy Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Y ear after year for more than a half-century, we’ve come together on the first Friday in May. We’ve come together during Republican and Democratic administra- tions, during times of war and peace, and during moments of promise andmoments of reckoning. We’ve come together to mourn after gut-wrenching loss and hard- ship and heartache. We’ve come together to celebrate diplomatic triumphs, as well as those less heralded examples of good professionals wading through risk and dif- ficulty tomake our imperfect world a little less threatening. We’ve come together to honor those who came before us, and to remind our- selves of our obligation to new generations of diplomats. And we’ve come together at moments of growth and revitalization, as well as moments of austerity and bureau- cratic consolidation, and even amputation. We come together this year at an undeniably difficult moment—a time of domestic upheaval and global disor- der, and a time of deep doubt about the value and purpose of American diplo- macy. After more than 15 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and almost a decade removed from the Great Reces- sion, Americans feel a profound sense of insecurity about their future and fatigue about engagement with the world. Baffled and battered by the dislocating forces of globalization, the sense of identity that has long animated us as a nation is fraying. Fed a narrative of carnage and chaos at home, and of decline and danger abroad, Americans wonder whether we can—and whether we even should—continue to play a leadership role on an endlessly compli- cated international landscape. … I am still close enough tomy time in government to understand vividly what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and everyone in this department wake up to every morning—challenges that are relent- less and choices that have to be made under unforgiving time pressures and with inevitably incomplete information. I have immense respect for what they must cope with, and for the professionalism and decency that they bring to the task. I miss the people I served with, and the unique fulfillment of public service; but I must admit that my nostalgia is under control for yet another meeting in the White House Situation Room to debate the tortured policy possibilities of North Korea or Syria, or to worry about the next big global health or humanitarian crisis. Ours is a hard business. But I worry, really worry, that we’re about tomake diplomacy a lot harder. Thirty percent budget cuts, substantial reductions in both the Foreign and Civil Services, disruptive fantasies about deep states and the particularly pernicious SPEAKING OUT At a moment when international order is under severe strain, power is fragmenting and great-power rivalry has returned, the values and purpose at the core of the American idea matter more than ever. This piece is excerpted from Ambassador Burns’ remarks at the May 5 Foreign Affairs Day luncheon at the Department of State. a