GOING IT ALONE? A Discussion of the Course of American Diplomacy

On 27 October 1988, the Fletcher Forum gathered a group of American policymakers to explore the future direction of US foreign policy. We asked: what strategic concepts should the United States espouse when conducting foreign relations with other nations? Our roundtable featured Walter Manger, currently the State Department's desk officer for the Cosmoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Tanzania, whose most recent tour was at the United Nations Political Office. Captain William Spencer Johnson, the Pentagon's deputy chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy, and Operations; Alexis Rieffel, an assistant to the US executive director of the International Monetary Fund; and Peter Galbraith, staff member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As moderator, Fletcher's Alan K. Henrikson lent his exhaustive knowledge of American foreign policy. Representing themselves rather than their institutions, the panelists unanimously rejected the idea of "going it alone." But a belief in American leadership suffused their remarks. An ambivalence, it seems, natural to American diplomacy.