March 20, 2005
More on Kennan
Much more on Kennan from the indispensable Foreign Affairs here. Go check it out.
Posted by Gregory at March 20, 2005 12:59 AM
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Drezner says, "Of Kennan's views of non-WASPs, the less said the better." Not so. The WASP prejudices and social values espoused by Kennan have done much harm to our nation's foreign policy elite's ability to work effectively in the developing world.
Kennan's WASP snobbery for decades, perhaps still does, influence CIA/State recruiting. It directly hurts our ability to build up expertise and assets outside of Europe. Perhaps this is only a personal gripe at the J Leverett Saltonstall idiots who for decades clogged up Foggy Bottom and Langley, but I believe it's hugely relevant today, when we have a surplus of Joe Wilson/Michael Scheuer idiots and a severe shortage of Pashtun- and mandarin-speaking case officers and analysts.
If as much as one-third of Wall Street and Silicon Valley comprise brilliant young asian- and indian-americans, why hasn't our foreign policy establishment seen the light? Perhaps my information's out of date. I hope so.
