Left to right: Ambassador Stephen D. Mull, Ambassador Laura Kennedy, and Diana Negroponte

 

How US Diplomacy Prevents Conflicts

By Elaine Pasquini
Photo by Phil Pasquini

 

Washington: “Diplomacy is an often-overlooked element of US power around the world, even as it plays a remarkably central role in managing and even avoiding conflicts,” Stimson Center President Brian Finlay said in his opening remarks at a March 26, 2025, program at the Center’s headquarters.

Moderator, Diana Negroponte, public policy fellow at the Wilson Center, kicked off the program with a question on whether the traditional tools of diplomacy are adequate to prevent escalation of a conflict.

Stephen D. Mull, former US ambassador to Poland and Lithuania, stressed the importance of diplomacy in preventing conflicts, pointing out that many warning signs are often rooted in centuries of history and ethnic divisions within a society. It’s extremely important, therefore, for diplomats to “remain plugged into the world, not to withdraw back from it and to watch, witness and be aware of these coming challenges,” he said.

With respect to the United States serving as a mediator in conflicts, Mull emphasized it was imperative to have the trust and confidence of both sides in a negotiation, which “has been true at every successful US mediation over the years.” The US must be “credible, imaginative and produce different compromise proposals that can get each side to agreement,” he added.

Asked about the effect of recent cuts to USAID, Mull warned that discontinuing vaccines against malaria in Africa or treatment of Ebola or HIV-AIDS will have a long-term security impact that ends up producing instability or failed states. “It’s a key question that I hope we’re able to get right again,” he said.

Another audience member wanted Mull’s view on opening diplomatic relations with Afghanistan or North Korea. The ambassador responded that he is “emphatically in favor of establishing contact with adversaries and friends alike.”

Relationships with both friends and adversaries provide insight into “levers you can pull to get things done,” he added. “Being familiar with your negotiating partners gives you incredible insight into how to work that relationship in ways that would be invisible to you if you didn’t have regular face-to-face contact.”

While acknowledging difficulties in sitting down with foes like North Korea or the Taliban, Mull asserted that “it’s hard to think about an adversary in the world with which the United States doesn’t have something in common and that is how you start building a way to a more peaceful and predictable relationship.”

Laura Kennedy, former US ambassador to Turkmenistan, noted that in terms of indicators of coming conflicts, “we set up a sort of conflict and stabilization bureau…for measuring the possibility of conflict breaking out…in an effort to try and get a handle on a conflict and stay ahead of it.”

Although the United States has outstanding intelligence agencies with unparalleled resources, “you can still be surprised sometimes,” she said. “But diplomacy matters because we’re around the world.”

Ambassadors and diplomats are trained in foreign languages and “there is nothing quite like having that presence on the ground, which, frankly, does concern me though when I see retrenchment that we’re seeing today,” she continued. “We need to keep up our diplomatic engagement.”

Speaking about the importance of American “soft power,” Kennedy recalled working in the newly formed Central Asian countries following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. At that time, she said, water – which can be a source of conflict in water-deficient regions – was an area US assistance programs focused on. Management of water resources “was a small, unheralded but useful thing we did …and I think that was a real contribution to finding regional solutions instead of these new republics vying over a scarce resource.”

Kennedy voiced her frustration that some people would refer to the programs as a “give away,” which she emphatically stated they were not.

“Yes, we do huge good in the world, but we are also serving our own interests,” she explained. “These assistance programs also help create markets for American goods and services.” US programs for food aid have helped countries develop future markets for our food, equipment and our services.

US assistance in disease prevention and containment also benefits Americans because disease and germs have no boundaries. “I do hope we can rebuild the consensus in favor of our assistance programs not just because it’s a good ethical thing to do, but because it serves our interests at home, and it benefits American taxpayers,” she said.

Lastly, Kennedy offered advice to the many Georgetown University students in the audience who are aspiring to be future diplomats.

“We should stress more the importance of demonstrating the value to Americans of what assistance and diplomacy does for them,” she said, urging students to convey the importance of diplomacy to people in their hometowns.

“Explain exactly what we do,” she added. With virtual tools available to students today, it’s easier to connect with people at the grassroots level than in the past. “So, use them, use your hometown connections because we really do need to demonstrate the value of foreign service. There are many detractors who dismiss it as too expensive.” In truth, the cost of the foreign service is less than one percent of the federal budget.

“I think you can do a lot of good from the beginning of your careers thinking about how you can connect with the country you represent outside of Washington,” Kennedy said. “It’s a big challenge but I think it is vitally important because…there is a mantra that ‘diplomacy begins at home’ and it is so true especially in times like today when we have a lot of partisan divisions.”

“See if you can try and bridge the divisions,” she urged the students. “And explain why diplomacy matters, why it serves American interests, and, yes, talk about the great good we do in the world. But try…and show why it’s benefiting US taxpayers and build that support for diplomacy.” 

(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)