Kennan's "Diplomacy Without Diplomats": Summary and Analysis

Introduction to Kennan and His Essay

George Kennan was an American diplomat who spent years in the Foreign Service and served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union and to Yugoslavia. In "Diplomacy Without Diplomats," he focuses on the vital need for a Foreign Service operated by the State Department with the sole aim of using diplomacy to cultivate relationships with foreign nations. He laments the fact that the State Department has been undercut by the rise of various special interest groups and congressional committees that now outnumber State Department officials in ambassadorial premises of the United States in foreign capitals.

Structure of the Essay

The essay begins with an introduction to the topic — the Foreign Service and the standards laid out by its founders. It provides a brief history of America's diplomatic and consular services, their merger under the Rogers Act, and an explanation for why the Foreign Service has failed to live up to the standards envisioned for it. Kennan describes how, one by one, each of the standards meant to guide the Foreign Service was ignored or abused, beginning with the standard that one enter the Service "only at the bottom and by examination" (Kennan, p. 201).

Kennan's thesis throughout the essay is that the Foreign Service is an important mechanism by which diplomacy is achieved — but that in today's environment there are too many bureaucrats and special interest group representatives acting on behalf of the United States without deference to the State Department, which was once tasked with shaping foreign policy. The result is that foreign policy in the United States is shaped more by congressional committees and special interests than by professional diplomats. Kennan concludes by noting that not only has diplomacy changed in the United States, but the whole world has changed, and the manner in which nations communicate has been transformed by new advances in technology. He leaves the reader in something of a haze at the end, suggesting that no one knows what the future will bring.

Kennan's Central Argument

Kennan's central argument is that the diplomats of earlier generations were instrumental in developing relationships between the United States and other nations on behalf of the State Department, but that today those diplomats are effectively missing. They have been marginalized and outnumbered in embassies by representatives from other departments, agencies, groups, and committees who have no role in the State Department, yet who have assumed the tasks formerly held by professional diplomats.

As Kennan notes, "many international questions today are addressed in multilateral forums of one sort or another. To such multilateral deliberations the president or his entourage often sends representatives, persons without a diplomatic background and not always reporting to, or through, the State Department. It is at such gatherings, it will be argued, that the United States now has most of its dealings with any particular government, rather than through the resident ambassador in that country" (p. 207).

This has led to a fragmentation of orientation. There is no diplomatic center, no cohesion, wholeness, or continuity. An envoy at a multilateral forum is unlikely to understand or be able to explain the full extent of the nature and motivations of the government he represents; he has only a small piece of information to work with. He does not carry the full weight and responsibility of an American diplomat. He is more like a cog, passing on a message but doing nothing in the way of actual engagement. A professional diplomat, by contrast, would be skilled and trained in the art of engagement; he would be able to discuss the nature and motivations of his government because he would have an intimate knowledge of them. He would not be a mere representative at a forum but someone speaking substantively on behalf of the United States. Today, that distinction is lost.