This past Sunday, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was interviewed by the New York Times Magazine. He was asked the following question: Lastly, how about Egypt? He responded: "Of course you have to say they’ve got their hands full not just in Egypt but also in the region. It is a complicated set of issues. I hope that the administration is working quiet diplomacy there and in other countries, and I think that it is the private diplomacy, not the public diplomacy, that’s going to have an effect."
Rummy, who never met a country he didn't want to bomb, employs an interesting and undiscussed (thus far) term into our class - private diplomacy. Presumably, he intimates governmental discussions with other leaders, however he doesn't elaborate (or else it wasn't published). Does he think President Obama should be exercising his influence on the interim military power, or the incoming parliament? Does private diplomacy imply Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her colleagues? Or does quiet diplomacy simply mean bombs that don't make noise?
Interesting! I think we should have a discussion in class about "private diplomacy"...or whatever Rumsfeld means when he talks about the kind of "backdoor diplomacy" he's referencing. Not all diplomacy is public, n'est ce pas?
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