Isaac Hale, UVU Marketing

Former U.S. Ambassador Frank G. Wisner addressed two groups at Utah Valley University regarding the country’s relationships with Russia, China and Iran in two speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Speaking to UVU leaders, national security students and faculty, Wisner began his remarks by stating that the U.S. is going through a particularly challenging foreign policy period and that the “tectonic plates” of power are shifting after three decades.

“America is looking at a very troubled world with a host of new problems — the COVID pandemic and its economic fallout, refugee numbers we have never seen since World War II, climate change,” he said. “And unfortunately, our country is weaker than it has ever been — weaker politics, people have lost faith in the government, and a lot of trust has been destroyed in this country.”

Wisner set the stage by going back to 1989, where he explained that the U.S. “stood as a hegemon over the world,” but noted that power has shifted and militaries have become stronger, creating what he called a “multi-polar” world, where the U.S. shares a seat at the table but no longer sits at the head.

Based on his more than 60 years of diplomatic experience, he said that watching relationships with Russia, China and Iran shift and morph is stunning — like nothing he has ever seen.

Isaac Hale, UVU Marketing

“We need new policies to deal with the realities of a multipolar world, and a new sense of priority for diplomacy,” Wisner said. “As Lord Salisbury — British Prime Minister at the end of the 19th century — said, ‘You can’t build new approaches on the cadavers of old policies.’ We need to think anew; we have to change.”

He went on to say that the U.S. has misjudged the three great powers — Russia, China and Iran. “We overlooked the fact that Russians are Russians,” he said. “They are not like us. People will be themselves in their cultures. They have a history of invasion, dismemberment, and threat — that’s where they come from. China is dealing with a national sense of humiliation — they are rebuilding their borders and demanding respect — and Iran wants to protect itself, referencing the outcome of the Iran-Iraq war.”

Wisner argued for the great need of diplomacy — that the need has never been greater. He said it is not a take-it or leave-it proposition, but a careful appreciation for one’s own power with a clear view of a rival’s interests and assets, and a path forward to find common ground, short of war.

“We have to understand and learn to deal with different powers with different ambitions,” Wisner said. “We all want peace and productive stability. Our way is not the only way — we have to accommodate the interests of others.”

Wisner spoke of the need for the U.S. to rebuild consensus internally and speak with one voice, saying that the strength of a nation and the strength of society make institutions work, and how, “we need to be one people.”

“Our modern statecraft must rest in moderation and nuance but proceed with strength — strength that is more than military power,” he said. “Strength that is built from things like a strong economy, strong infrastructure, etc.”

He shared his “four C’s” on how the U.S. must interact with nations in the multi-polar world: Confront, compete, cooperate and communicate.

According to Wisner, the U.S. must confront when China or others impinge on other countries, learn how to compete with other countries, cooperate on issues like climate change and pandemics, and communicate by keeping an open line between the U.S. and China, Russia and Iran. The U.S. needs to explain itself so other countries do not feel threatened, he said.

Wisner concluded his remarks by saying that diplomacy will not work without great military power and that there will never be peace, but that it will be a work in progress. “What you [the U.S.] have achieved today is temporary, but you must build upon it,” he said. “Diplomacy is more important today than ever in my lifetime. Diplomacy takes us through often painful negotiations, but ends without painful violence and without having to go to war.”

Wisner served as U.S. Ambassador to Zambia under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, to Egypt under Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the Philippines under Bush and India under Bill Clinton.

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