I miss reading Djerejian. This is the first new post in a long while and you’d do worse than to read him. This particular post articulates and argues a point that I’ve long maintained: terrorism is not the only foreign policy issue that requires expertise. For example, read the next article I’m going to link to. We have a former foreign service officer for Pakistan who apparently didn’t know that they consider India their primary threat. To which, the only response is WTF.

Beyond that, it’s clear that at a fundamental level, the Bush administration doesn’t understand how to lead vs. how to order countries around. The idea that these countries may not want to share our priorities escapes them too often. It was clear during the “axis of evil” construction during the run up to the Iraq War, and it’s clear today with the failures Djerejian cites in his article. China, India, Israel, Russia: they matter as much or more than terrorism in the long run.