Democracy, Transparency and Foreign Policy

As Robert D. Kaplan wrote for Stratfor Glogal Intelligence Reports a couple of days ago, good foreign policy is not always entirely honest. In "Syria and Byzantine Strategy," Kaplan criticizes the Obama Administration for showing too many of its cards in the matter of Syria intervention. "Never tell your adversary what you're not going to do!" he says,  "Let your adversary stay awake all night, worrying about the extent of a military strike!"


http://superradnow.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/spy-vs-spy/

That's probably right. But in democratic governments, secrecy and deception are also problematic. In order for Obama to deceive Bashar al Assad, he would also have to deceive the American public and most of Congress, too. That's not really what he's supposed to do. Maybe that's why dictatorships -- like the Byzantine Empire Kaplan praises in the piece -- execute foreign strategy more effectively.

Obama's strength is his weakness: he's an honest man, fundamentally, and he prefers to talk straight. Such an approach to life is not helping him here.