a couple of insights from the US diplomatic cables on wikileaks

Wikileaks figurehed Julian Assange
Wikimedia.org

as the story of the US diplomatic cables unfolds, it is time for a couple of thoughts of what they do and don't mean. (read about the highlights of their contents on the New York Times website or, more concise but still changing, on wikipedia.)

First, they do not contain any surprising content when it comes to the fact that, in international negotiations, everyone tries to outsmart their opponents and thinks of each other with little kindness. We all suspected as much and, as much as we enjoy a little chuckle at the characterizations of Berlusconi as

feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader

or Merkel as

tenacious but ... risk averse and rarely creative

i don't think that is too far from what we have been able to read in the papers for quite some time now.

amid all the haggling for influence, the not-so-flattering characterizations, the deception and thinly veiled threats, there is one recurrent theme, however: international governments talk to each other, all the time, about all sorts of issues. i think this is a ray of hope in a world that is rife with conflict, or so at least the media tell us. no matter how little they think of each other, or how much they rattle their sabers, at the end of the day the governments of this world all find the time to send envoys to the negotiating table, forge back room deals and, by doing that, come to a better mutual understanding. like the style or not, this is reassuring.

the second insight is that all this time people make changes in their countries and what we see as progressive powers are learning to wait their turn and then act. this one is only a rumor but worth highlighting in my opinion

An unidentified ally of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani suggested that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has terminal leukemia and was expected to die in months and Rafsanjani's unwillingness to act after the disputed presidential election in 2009 comes from his wish to succeed Khamenei and annul Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election afterwards.

we do live in interesting times, indeed.