Opinion | US-China relations: a good-versus-evil world view does no one any good
- Broadly speaking, America needs a new path, rethinking its assumptions about itself and foreign policy, before dealing with Beijing and Moscow
- The Biden administration’s possible choices for US envoy to China, and the decision to pull out of Afghanistan, seem steps in the right direction
It is still true, even in this speed-freak era of AI and machine-learning, that international diplomacy needs governments to station quality representatives in foreign capitals, and for international organisations to listen and learn, soak up the ineffable atmosphere, and interact with real people, especially those with “issues”, and report back home.
Long-distance artificial intelligence calibrations suffice for number problems and may work well enough for the Pentagon, but for the complex measurement of (sometimes insane) people and their crazy politics, AI comes up short precisely because of its artificial rationality.
Cut-rate diplomatic appointments can blow up in your face and trying to do things on the cheap with big-bucks campaign bozos or oily hacks can insult the very host country with whom tensions are building.
Foreign Service officer Burns is a graduate of the highly-regarded Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; trade lawyer Barshefsky is famous for her amazing teamwork two decades ago with premier Zhu Rongji on China’s admission to the World Trade Organization.