The article reflects on the author's disillusionment with the U.S. Department of State, illustrating a culture steeped in cynicism and a departure from genuine diplomatic strategies. The author describes how foreign policy has become a self-justifying industry that inflates risks and prolongs conflicts rather than solving them. Despite initial excitement for the proximity to power and global travel, the author ultimately feels trapped in a bureaucratic machine that prioritizes ambition and contracts over ethical standards, prompting a moral departure from the foreign policy world.
Washington, DC, teaches you how to read the room, speak in acronyms, and feign conviction in things you do not believe.
Foreign policy, once the noble realm of statesmen and cautious realists, has morphed into a self-justifying industry.
We weren't solving problems. We were sustaining them. Stabilization missions masked occupation.
I left because I couldn't square that reality with my conscience. I left because I was tired of intellectualizing destruction.
#foreign-policy #us-department-of-state #cynicism-in-politics #military-industrial-complex #diplomacy
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