Richard Haass admits US foreign-policy establishment is faulty

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In a journal titled "Ten Lessons from the Return of History," Richard Haass, the longtime president of the Council on Foreign Relations, which publishes Foreign Affairs, the most significant journal of the foreign-policy establishment, essentially admits that the American foreign-policy establishment has been mistaken for the past 30 years on the most crucial global issues, according to a report by The American Spectator. 

Haass doesn't blatantly say it, rather he couches the foreign-policy establishment’s errors in a list of the 10 “lessons” of 2022 that “we ignore at our peril," according to the newsletter.

According to the report, these "ten lessons" serve as proof that the Council on Foreign Relations' recommendations to policymakers and readers of Foreign Affairs, who closely follow their counsel, should go elsewhere to grasp what is actually going on in the world.

1. Wars between countries are obsolete

The journal discusses different points that highlight the flaws. The first introduces how Foreign Policy suggests that war between countries, especially war involving great powers, was obsolete.

"They said this even as the United States — a great power — waged wars against Iraq in 1991, and later against Afghanistan and Iraq in the 21st century. And these were wars that had the support (at least initially) of most of the American foreign-policy establishment. Russia waged war in Ukraine in 2014, and again in 2022. Indian and Chinese forces have clashed along their border. And China threatens to use force to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, risking a war with the United States, Japan, and possibly other countries in the region."

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Haass adds that the establishment types suggested that economic interdependence and economic and cultural “integration” would remove motives for war but all Western countries had to do was welcome a rising China into the “rules-based international order” and engage the Chinese Communist Party in academic and cultural matters, and everything would be fine, according to him. However, he suggests that economics has never been the only motive for wars.

1.1 Haass on sanctions

Regarding sanctions, he suggested that many globalists suggested that economic sanctions would change the behavior of nations, even though history teaches otherwise. "Sanctions didn’t stop Japan’s aggression before and during World War II. They didn’t persuade Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait. They haven’t persuaded Russia to end its aggression in Ukraine."

2. No such thing as international community 

The second "lesson" we have learned is that there is no such thing as an "international community," according to Haass.

He acknowledges that the UN is "impotent." For a member of the foreign policy elite in good standing, this might be the most excruciating acknowledgment of a mistake, suggesting that the core of the globalist agenda is directly attacked by this, according to the American Spectator. 

2.1 'Authoritarianism face greater challenges'

The next point Haass makes is that authoritarian governments confront more obstacles to maintaining power than do democracies.

He has learned again that “authoritarian leaders often resist abandoning failed policies or admitting mistakes” and that “ideology and regime survival often drive decision-making in such systems.” Here Haass suggests that only those in the foreign policy elite have ever believed otherwise.

2.2 'Empowering individuals challenges governments'

The next lesson learned is that “the potential for the internet to empower individuals to challenge governments is far greater in democracies than in closed systems.” "Autocratic" regimes, Haass notes, can “close off their society, monitor and censor content, or both.”

Haass also noted that democratic educational systems are worse, emphasizing that the events in 2022 should be a lesson. 

He notes that the recent Twitter revelations have proved that democratic governments also have the capacity to close off their society and monitor and censor internet content.

2.3 'The West still exists' 

In contrast to the globalist agenda, which assumes the universality of all things and avoids bragging about the advantages of Western civilization in comparison to other civilizations, Haass then acknowledges that "there is still a West," which means that Western civilization is real and probably worth defending.

According to CFR's President, “the United States cannot act unilaterally in the world if it wants to be influential,” American leadership is “essential.” 

2.4 'They think they are better'

The final “lesson,” Haass notes, is that “we must be modest about what we can know.” “What we have learned,” he continues, “is not just that history has returned, but also that, for better or worse, it retains its ability to surprise us.” 

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He adds that modesty is rarely exhibited among members of the foreign-policy establishment, suggesting that "they often think of themselves as our “betters” and claim to have a better appreciation of world affairs than the common man or woman."

Haass defends that there is "more than modesty involved here."

The American Spectator suggests that Haass accidentally dispelled the delusions of the internationalists and globalists who have guided the United States down a precipice toward demise.