Georgetown University

Washington, D.C.—Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) has released a report examining the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies needed to protect against security threats to American interests.

The report, Diplomacy and Security in the Twenty-first Century, examines the use of diplomatic engagement – specifically on the spread of nuclear capabilities among new regional powers, including North Korea, India, Pakistan, Libya and Iran.

From increased nuclear weapons and technology to the spread of transnational terrorist groups and the development of weapons of mass destruction—the U.S. faces pre-eminent security challenges in the 21st century. So what should the American diplomats be focusing on to protect against emerging security threats?

With grant support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, an ISD working group of senior policy and intelligence experts developed an array of recommendations for American diplomats.

“A discernible tendency among senior officials is to treat professionals offering information that challenges existing policy as unwelcome or even disloyal,” says Janne Nolan, an ISD research assistant. “The system of incentives and disincentives, in turn, seems increasingly to discourage professionals from challenging majority views, which contributes to a culture that is risk adverse, slow to adapt and potentially perilously conformist.”

The working group includes seasoned intelligence and diplomacy specialists spanning several U.S. presidential administrations, including Walsh School of Foreign Service Dean Robert Gallucci, a former chief negotiator for North Korea, and Bruce Riedel, a former National Security Council official involved in negotiations for the disarmament of Libya. Members examined four cases of diplomatic initiatives aimed at containing problematic nuclear developments among the distinct regional powers, and they investigated how U.S. policymakers and intelligence officials supported – or failed to support – these efforts.

The four cases of nuclear diplomacy that the study group examined—including North Korea, India/Pakistan, Libya, and Iran—raised many important lessons for the intelligence and policy communities, a summary of which is presented in the report.

As stated in the report’s introduction, “a fundamental finding that emerged from all of the cases is that diplomacy is an essential means to achieving U.S. national security objectives and that the U.S. foreign policy ends must be connected to its means.”

About the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy

The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD), founded in 1978, is a program of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and is the School’s primary window on the world of the foreign affairs practitioner. ISD studies the practitioner’s craft: how diplomats and other foreign affairs professionals succeed and the lessons to be learned from their successes and failures. For more information about ISD please visit: http://isd.georgetown.edu.

About Georgetown University

Georgetown University is the oldest and largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.