I enjoyed your piece "On Defeatism" and especially the historical evidence to support it. I lived through many of these events from the vantage point of the State Department, but never from the optic of the National Security Council. While I agree with your analysis, I never thought of the problem as "defeatism" but rather apathy towards and ignorance about Africa. Your NSC perspective sheds another light on an issue that lingers from the past and worsens.
The good news here is that neither Africans nor Americans need the US government’s involvement or permission to be great. I spent 25 years representing the United States abroad, as a contractor and then a diplomat. Now a private citizen, I have founded a company and moved my family to Nairobi seeking the energy of the entrepreneurial culture here and a healthy environment to raise my daughter. The United States has so many wonderful virtues, but safe to say: whatever the USG is betting on these days, I’m going all-in the other side of it.
Your diagnosis of defeatism as a mindset problem is exactly right. I’m wrestling with a security version of this: if past defeatism created structures that now constrain engagement, what does “demanding more” look like when the constraint is cross-agency? When the agencies best positioned to lead lack flexible funding, and the agencies with resources face limitations on engagement, how do we demand more?
I like your advice: ask for more! But it does depend on whom you're asking. Why was Bush so receptive? I wonder sometimes if he wasn't trying to redeem himself from the Iraq disaster. What would asking look like in the current administration?
I enjoyed your piece "On Defeatism" and especially the historical evidence to support it. I lived through many of these events from the vantage point of the State Department, but never from the optic of the National Security Council. While I agree with your analysis, I never thought of the problem as "defeatism" but rather apathy towards and ignorance about Africa. Your NSC perspective sheds another light on an issue that lingers from the past and worsens.
David Shinn
David. Thanks for your perspective. Always valued.
The good news here is that neither Africans nor Americans need the US government’s involvement or permission to be great. I spent 25 years representing the United States abroad, as a contractor and then a diplomat. Now a private citizen, I have founded a company and moved my family to Nairobi seeking the energy of the entrepreneurial culture here and a healthy environment to raise my daughter. The United States has so many wonderful virtues, but safe to say: whatever the USG is betting on these days, I’m going all-in the other side of it.
Your diagnosis of defeatism as a mindset problem is exactly right. I’m wrestling with a security version of this: if past defeatism created structures that now constrain engagement, what does “demanding more” look like when the constraint is cross-agency? When the agencies best positioned to lead lack flexible funding, and the agencies with resources face limitations on engagement, how do we demand more?
I like your advice: ask for more! But it does depend on whom you're asking. Why was Bush so receptive? I wonder sometimes if he wasn't trying to redeem himself from the Iraq disaster. What would asking look like in the current administration?
Good questions.
"The soft bigotry of low expectations" —George W Bush