How Relevant is Diplomacy Anymore?

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman normally has approximately four ideas that he rotates through for his columns (the Middle East is a complicated place; the world is flat/globalization is good; green energy is good/let me tell you about this cool invention I saw; buy my latest book), but occasionally he actually takes the time to write a thought provoking column, in this case "In the Age of Pirates" on the role and success of formal diplomacy in an age of non-state actors.

I agree with his main point, that a more realist approach is needed, that countries like Iran and North Korea, as well as groups like pirates and terrorists, will primarily respond to hard power inducements. As he puts it,

The only thing that could change this is a greater exercise of U.S. and allied power. In the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, that power would have to be used to actually rebuild these states from the inside into modern nations. We would literally have to build the institutions — the pulleys and wheels — so that when the leaders of these states pulled a lever something actually happened, and the lever wouldn’t just break off in their hands.

And in the case of the strong states — Iran and North Korea — we would have to generate much more effective leverage from the outside to get them to change their behavior along the lines we seek. In both cases, though, success surely would require a bigger and longer U.S. investment of money and power, not to mention allies.

However, I disagree with him that diplomacy is no longer useful or effective. Unilateral solutions will not work for any of the cases he mentioned. Strong diplomacy is needed to build coalitions of reluctant allies in order to solve those world-threatening problems. Furthermore, great and emerging powers, including Russia, China, India, and Brazil still need the high-level engagement Friedman dismisses as a Cold War relic. Big issues like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 2010 review conference require multilateral diplomacy of the highest order.

The problem is not the inefficacy of diplomacy in the modern era, the problem is not enough diplomacy and not enough cooperation.