Officers or Ambassadors?

After over seven year of war in the region, sixty-three percent of Americans cannot locate Iraq on a map [1]. This is just one of many symptoms indicative of the collective ignorance of the American population towards the complex dynamic of the Middle East. While the situation in the Middle East is undoubtedly a complicated one, the high degree of geographic and cultural illiteracy stereotypical of Americans is resultant of a lack of willingness to understand, not of an inability to do so. As future naval officers, we are not afforded this luxury of ignorance and can hold no indifference towards matters of foreign relations.

A few weeks ago, my U.S. government class had Ambassador Cameron Munter come speak to us about his role as a diplomat. Serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan during the Osama Bin Laden raid, he had a wealth of information to share about US-Middle Eastern relations and the role military officers play in facilitating that relationship. In particular, he highlighted the current transition from the use traditionally trained ambassadors to fulfill diplomatic duties towards the use of U.S. military leaders abroad to assume these roles. In training to become naval officers, he emphasized, we also must train to become diplomats.

Almost any midshipman would agree that the Naval Academy is a STEM oriented school. Often humanities and social studies electives seen as obstacles in the way filling in a predetermined matrix. However, Ambassador Munter challenges this outlook through his assertion that the role played by naval officers as diplomats is one of the most critical tasks to be accomplished. More often than not, opportunities for diplomacy are presented in unplanned situations. In order to conduct effective negotiations and conversations with foreign nationals, a broad base of cultural knowledge is required. In studying history we are given the opportunity to examine the present through the lens of the past, enabling an increased understanding of tensions between ethnic and religious groups.

Underlying tensions and a complicated past are characteristic of the Middle East. Our current studies of the interactions between the Middle East and the West through the crusades enables us to better understand these tensions, particularly those religiously based. The Shia/Sunni split originated as early as the year 632, yet “define[s] not only the pattern of local politics, but also the relationship between the Islamic world and the West,” causing very real implications for the US military today [2].

Compounded with the friction between sects of Islam is the multi-religion claim to Jerusalem from Jews, Muslims, and Christians. In 1 Kings 11:32, the Bible reads that God claims Jerusalem as “the city which I have chosen,” and Jerusalem serves as the site central to the life of Jesus. In Judaism, Jerusalem is so important it is given over seventy different names, such as “City of Righteousness” and “Doorway to the World’s Peoples.” Yet Islam, the most populous faith in the Middle East, claims the city central to their religion as well, with a site of particular significance being the Dome of Rock, where it is believed the Day of Judgement will occur [3]. With competing claims to one land, tension inevitably arises.

Today, Jerusalem and the surrounding regions are entangled in a conflict which the US is inextricably tied to. The Middle East is a region of strategic interest to the United States, not only economically in terms of oil supply and trade routes, but also ideologically as an international stage for the fight for democracy and the protection of human rights. While we may be inclined to opt for an overly-generalized understanding of the situation, or no understanding at all, diving into the nuances of the historical context of the current conflict prepares us to tackle the role of ambassador that we are bound to play as future naval officers.

History is critical to ensuring domestic security and secure US influence in regions of extreme geopolitical significance. Through intimate knowledge of the culture and context—and more importantly a willingness to learn—we can be best prepared to create and communicate solutions as ambassadors. The solutions we seek are in response to complex issues rooted in history, but finding a bipartisan solution to a global conflict with such staggering repercussions for the United States is critical to our success as a nation.

Word Count: 598

Sources:
[1] CBS News. Vries, Lloyd. “Where’s Iraq?” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wheres-iraq-young-adults-dont-know/.

[2] National Public Radio (npr). “The Origins Of The Shiite-Sunni Split,” https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2007/02/12/7332087/the-origins-of-the-shiite-sunni-split.

[3] The Yale Review of International Studies. Krinsky, Sarah. “Jerusalem: Political Significance of a Holy Site,” http://yris.yira.org/essays/350.

–J. M. Lotterer