The Foreign Service Journal, September 2012

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27 absolute principle—when you deal with Hitler, you cannot achieve progress with engagement. I wrote an article on Syria, in which I agree with the strategic objective. I do not think it rises to the level of using American military force to achieve it, but that’s a question of judgment. SJ: On another issue, today there was an article in the New York Times about the International Crisis Group’s report on the rising risk of fighting in the South China Sea. How do you see tensions over these conflicting claims unfolding, and is there any particular advice that you would have for policymakers in Washington or for our diplomats in the field? HK: The dotted line that was put forward by a previ- ous Chinese government some years ago reflected a view of where the Chinese empire had traditionally projected its influence across the sea. But they didn’t frame the issue then in terms of the modern concept of freedom of the seas. It’s a traditional Chinese view, but how it applies to contemporary circum- stances has not been made fully clear. I think we have two problems in the South China Sea. One is the freedom of navigation; the second is the future of the various archipelagoes that dot the region. We should try to separate those two issues, and try to get all the concerned parties to agree on some concept of freedom of navigation as a first step. The easiest would be for all of us to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty. This would remove the freedom of nav- igation issue. On the issue of these archipelagos, I would try to avoid dealing with them as a coherent issue. I think we should resist the use of force in settling it. I would hope that in the evolution of our Asian policy, a way could be found to deal with them one by one as they come up. F OCUS At all times, diplomacy is extremely important, and should be pre-eminent.