[Back issue] The West Destroyed Its Own Diplomacy | Ambs. Zorilla, Ruch & Kusai

Originally published on 6 Sept 2025.

What happened to the ancient arts of diplomacy and statecraft in Europe and North America? Why is it that there are no skilled foreign policy experts left in the West? Kaja Kalas, Marco Rubio, Annalena Baerbock, really? Is this the best we can get? And worse, think of the battalions of Rambo-Ambassadors the US sends all over the globe, who only insult foreign leaders, while the EU dashes out regulations that their embassy staff should only negotiate with autocratic states through written notes of protest—no real diplomacy allowed. What the hell happened?Well, there are explanations. A very important one is the silent murder of diplomacy as a profession in the West, by "securitising" foreign policy. While in the past, it used to be Foreign Ministry staff and their diplomats who crafted government reports and recommendations on how to approach the question of security and geopolitics, this has been largely usurped by the security crowd in the intelligence agencies, the defense departments, the military, and the military-industrial-complex linked think tanks. But there are other factors, too.In this talk, three former Ambassadors, José Zorrilla, Jean-Daniel Ruch, and Sandor Kusai, discuss the various reasons why the Euro-American world has lost not only its political but also its diplomatic skills.

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