Modern Age - Fall 2014 - 53

WHAT U.S. FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS SHOULD KNOW

The timing, focus, and degree of violence
to be used depend on strategy. The Soviet
Union, for example, never declared war on its
"enemies" in the West, and it certainly never
attacked them, even though it understood
itself to be at war with them from its incep-
tion to its demise. Rather, the Soviet Union
pursued their destruction largely through
subversion and indirect warfare, building
the most intimidating armed forces possible
and elaborating frighteningly reasonable
plans for military victory. By contrast, the
British and French declaration of war against
Germany in September 1939, provoked by
Germany's conquest of Poland, was a phony
war because the British and French had no
intention of doing what was necessary to free
Poland. There was, however, nothing phony
about the Germans' attack on France and
Britain in 1940.
Not all international violence amounts to
war. Occupations are not war. Neither do
efforts at nation building amount to war.
Military operations, regardless of size or
casualties, amount to war only if they serve
reasonable plans for achieving a country's pre-
ferred state of peace. In this sense, although
Napoleon was a master of battles, he failed at
war because his masterly moves were not well
aimed at a state of rest. Though it is impos-
sible to foretell the consequences of any war,
statesmen worthy of their offices go to war
only after being clear about the peace at which
they aim; who or what stands in the way of
that peace; the military and other operations
that, if successful, will remove that obstacle;
and their own capacity and commitment to

carry out those operations. Without such
calculations, war's violence is truly senseless.

F

oreign Policy: Shield of the Republic-
this title of Walter Lippmann's 1943
book expresses the American people's peren-
nial common sense about the foreign service
officer's job: you deal with foreigners so that
we can go about our lives, so we can be what
we want to be, without worrying about them.
Your job is to mind America's business. By
contrast, in 1919, as President Woodrow
Wilson was campaigning for approval of the
Versailles Treaty, he said that America had
"no reason for being" except to "stand for the
rights of men," to be "champions of human-
ity." According to that notion, current among
prominent Republicans and Democrats in
our time, your job as a foreign service officer
is to cast the American people's weight on
the scales of foreigners' affairs so as to secure
their human rights. It is to mind the world's
business.
These views of your job are incommensu-
rable. As you choose between them, keep in
mind that questions about the meaning of the
American people's interests are answerable by
the American people's elected representatives
through America's constitutional process.
But "the rights of men" as well as what the
interests of any part of foreign humanity may
be are concepts over which various foreign-
ers have fought among themselves since time
immemorial. Individual Americans may have
opinions about such things, but your job is
defined by your oath of office, to the Consti-
tution of the United States.

53
Modern Age - Fall 2014

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