What Would a Diplomat Do??

(from The New York Times July 23, 2007)

Editorial

What Would a Diplomat Do?

When Condoleezza Rice took over as secretary of state, the (wishful) thinking was that the Bush administration would finally get into the business of diplomacy. Ms. Rice can be as bullying and ad hominem as her boss, but she’s also an achiever and trying her hand at persuasion was probably the only hope for salvaging the administration’s failed foreign policies and her reputation.

Two and a half years later we’re pleased to note a preliminary success for the new era: North Korea’s decision to shut down its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in exchange for economic and eventual diplomatic payoffs. Ms. Rice managed to hold back the spoilers in the vice president’s office long enough for her negotiator, Christopher Hill, to do the deal the old-fashioned way: countless hours of negotiations and a willingness to compromise with a leader President Bush once famously said he “loathed.”

Unfortunately, in most every other area ad hominem and loathing still dominate. And there is still a perplexing refusal to do the tedious but absolutely essential diplomatic prep work.

Consider Mr. Bush’s announcement last week that Ms. Rice will preside over a Middle East peace meeting this fall. That might seem a breakthrough for a White House that started out claiming that too much diplomacy — by Bill Clinton — unleashed the second Palestinian uprising. And we’re being told that Ms. Rice considers an Israeli-Palestinian peace her last, best chance for a legacy. Still, there’s no sign that either she or Mr. Bush has grasped the lesson of Mr. Hill’s North Korea breakthrough.

They are still refusing to talk to people they loathe. The militant Palestinian movement Hamas is definitely not invited to their meeting, even though it controls a large swath of Palestinian territory and psyche. And Syria probably won’t make the list. Both deserve loathing but also have the ability to shatter any peace effort, and further isolating them will only give them further incentive to try.

Beyond that, the administration can’t answer the most basic questions, like when and where the meeting will take place, what friendly Arab states will be coming and what the agenda is. The Palestinians want to talk about all the big things, like borders, Jerusalem and when they get the independent state Mr. Bush committed himself to five years ago. The Israelis say they can’t discuss these issues as long as Palestinian attacks on Israel continue.

All of which leads back to that perplexing refusal to do the diplomatic preparation. Officials say that Ms. Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will start filling in the blanks when they visit the region at the end of this month. But it took former Secretary of State James Baker (no slouch as a negotiator) eight grueling shuttle trips to set the stage for the 1991 Madrid peace conference.

With time so short, Ms. Rice should either be shuttling full time or sending out a legion of diplomats to try to ensure that there are enough heavy hitters at the table and enough they’re willing to talk about to make all sides want to keep talking. She could start by asking, what would Chris Hill do?