The Cosmopolitan Globalists have been reading ...
A History of US Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. Plus: Bring back Napoléon.
—Claire here: I just realized it’s March 20 and I’ll be moderating the event below in five days, so right now, the only thing I’m reading is Robert Zoellick’s new book. If you’ve got questions about it, ask them in the comments. I’ll ask him. And please join us. You’re all warmly invited.
MARCH 25, 7:00 PM CEST
MUNICH DIALOGUES ON DEMOCRACY PRESENTS
A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT B. ZOELLICK
America in the World
US Diplomacy and Foreign Policy Past, Present and Future
Robert B. Zoellick has served as Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary, and Counselor of the State Department; Ambassador and US Trade Representative; Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury; Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House; and President of the World Bank. His experience spans six US presidencies—during the Cold War, in its closing chapter, and into the first decades of the 21st century. Zoellick is now a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he contributes to the “Applied History” project. He published his book, America in the World: A History of US Diplomacy and Foreign Policy in August 2020.
After watching former US President Donald Trump turn his back on alliances, the international order, free trade, and human rights, it’s tempting to view his foreign policy as an aberration. In his highly acclaimed new book, Robert B. Zoellick suggests that the United States’ engagement with the world has always been a bit chaotic, a dance between two conflicting charges: the continent-sized pull of the ongoing national experiment and the belief that American exceptionalism can remake the world.
Using examples from Franklin, Hamilton, Lincoln and Roosevelt, Zoellick calls for a return to pragmatic leadership that doesn’t lose sight of higher principles and the value of alliances. He furthers his message including central contributions of four men who are now lesser known: Charles Evans Hughes for originating successful arms control, Elihu Root for international law, Cordell Hull for open trade, and Vannevar Bush for the centrality of science and technology to the US global outlook.
Zoellick comes to us to make a strong case that the story of the past can help us make the future better.
“AMERICA IN THE WORLD” is a highly accessible and engaging history of U.S. diplomacy written by one of the country’s smartest and most capable foreign policy practitioners. Robert Zoellick understands better than most how inseparable America’s fate is from the rest of the world, and that timely lesson shines through the pages of this book.”
– Former Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
“An outstanding history of US foreign policy by one of its leading practitioners. Zoellick grasps the essence of the debates over America’s role in the world and shows the constant interaction between global developments and the approaches of U.S. policymakers. It is a diplomatic history for the 21st century, grounded in the practical lessons of centuries past.”
– O.A. WESTAD, Yale University, author of The Cold War: A World History
Moderator Claire Berlinski is an author and journalist based in Paris. After receiving a degree in modern history and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, she has lived and reported from Southeast Asia and Turkey, and is now the editor of the Cosmopolitan Globalist.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
7:00 pm CET, 1:00 pm EST
No registration necessary.
Munich Dialogues on Democracy is a cooperation between The Yale Club of Germany e.V. and Amerikahaus—The Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations.
From Vivek—Three important developments that influence and indicate the Biden administration’s foreign policy and strategy on China:
The early date for the Quad meeting among India, US, Japan, and Australia. I was earlier than originally planned, from what I hear. It may well have been Biden’s first real policy meet.
The revival of the proposal for the US-EU tech alliance: EU’s Ursula von der Leyen renewed a proposal to set up a transatlantic technology alliance in a phone call with Biden last week. The proposal is for the Transatlantic Trade and Technology Council jointly to focus on innovation and set joint standards on technologies such as 5G mobile networks, artificial intelligence, and data flows, areas in which China is the main global competitor. Trump spurned this last year.
Biden has begun attempts to bring together South Korea, Japan, and the US in an alliance. Biden has spoken to the leaders of both countries and is seeking a thaw in the Korea-Japan relationship, which is currently at its lowest ebb. Tough task by all accounts. Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are preparing to visit Japan and South Korea this week, Bloomberg reported.
I will be writing more about this soon; meanwhile, suggested reading:
US says early Quad summit timing reflects Joe Biden’s priorities
What does the Quad summit signal for U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific?
Biden Troop Deal With South Korea Calls for Modest Increases
North Korea Rules Out US Talks in Jab at Visiting Biden Envoys
US, EU must prepare for ‘long-term strategic competition with China’, says Joe Biden
EU renews bid to set up tech alliance with the US
North Korea’s increasing reliance on China is a dangerous move for Kim Jong Un
Claire again—On the recall of the Russian Ambassador, I’ll have more to say soon; but if you missed it, the National Intelligence Council declassified this report five days ago. Mighty interesting reading.
Also, keep your eye on Djibouti. That’s what we do all day here in France, since once again we’re under lockdown. By the way, today Monique will be hosting us on a new Cosmopolicast dedicated to our blueprint for ending the pandemic. The authors of our pandemic series will all be on the call.
The Coronavirus, Europe, and the United States
Part I: Finish off Covid19. Hurry.
Monique’s under instructions to prevent me from swearing, screaming, or raving on about Napoléon.
For those of you who are interested in the Napoleonic battle against smallpox, however—and its relevance to the contemporary French fiasco—it’s just a fascinating story. Do you realize that in 1809, in Napoleonic Italy alone, they vaccinated 1,500,000 people? The Napoleonic state built an entire health administration, from nothing, and a vaccination apparatus so efficient France managed to conquer the damned disease, with an alacrity unimaginable to contemporary Europe, and then conquer the world. (In fairness, France has so far vaccinated 5,630,671 people against Covid19, and the French Caribbean surely considers life under the contemporary regime an improvement.)
But Napoleonic France accomplished its vaccination campaign without motorized vehicles, telephones, the Internet, or an existing health care apparatus—and did so by means that while obvious, seem entirely beyond the grasp of contemporary French leadership.
Smallpox vaccination in napoleonic Italy (1800-1814)
This is the context in which the anti-vaccination movement must be understood. At its core, it is a counter-Enlightenment project.
The Physicians’ Dilemma in the 18th-century French Smallpox Debate
Gatti was right.
When Napoléon declared war on smallpox
Quand Napoléon faisait vacciner la France (Don’t read French? Try Google Translate. It works.)
Chapter 6 - The particular case of Napoleonic France (1798–1815)
I want Napoléon! Bring back Napoléon! I am Napoléon! No … wait.
Anyway, back to Djibouti: Djibouti at a Crossroads: China’s African Engagement and an Adversarial Beijing-Washington Relationship
Another item for your reading pleasure: Friend of the Cosmopolitan Globalists Arun Kapil has written a piece on American college campus follies and the performative antics of woke students. It’s interesting, particularly, for the contrast with French students, who are a lot less performative:
I discussed my thoughts on this a week ago with a brilliant sociologist friend, who’s taught for some twenty years at the Université Paris-8 (Saint-Denis)—which is the most “woke” university in France (and the polar opposite of the institution I teach at)—was a Trotskyist (LCR) militant in his youth (wasn’t everyone?), and is a specialist of social movements and collective action. Prior to the discussion, I asked him to watch the Evergreen video (he has no personal experience with American universities, so found the Evergreen spectacle jarring; he joked that I had him watch the video to give him a “nightmare”). While appalled by the Evergreen students and their antics, he found them almost gentillet (nice, sweet) compared to student movements in France, which involve hardened militants, with barricades, occupation of university buildings (and the vandalism that ensues), and the real threat of violence—and with the engagement of non-student elements: of anarchists and other currents of the ultra-left, who infiltrate the movements and with the aim of clashing with the police.
What so appalled his friend, it seemed, was the sheer rudeness of the Evergreen students.
I am, by the way, the “indignant and irate right-leaning friend” to which Arun refers in re. the matter of Donald McNeil, the New York Times reporter fired for educating students on a school trip to Peru.
If you are in any way a careful reader, you will find Arun’s update to the sixth paragraph mordantly amusing.
Now I return to reading Zoellick. Don’t forget to subscribe, if you haven’t already, and if you have, send this to your friends—especially the ones who might subscribe. But your other friends are very welcome, too.
I wonder if Napoleon was influenced by his encounters with the Black Plague on his small pox policy decisions. As I recall, his African campaign met with an outbreak and had to leave a number of infected troops behind as garrisons. Years after, could he really afford to lose large numbers of French cannon fodder to disease, when he needed them to face most of Europe? That seems like the sort of dark calculus he might engage in.