What are the basic principles of diplomacy and military secrets?

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” – West African proverb popularized in America by Teddy Roosevelt

“Military secrets are the most fleeting of all.” – Spock

Check out The Art of War for other thought-provoking quotable snippets of ancient military wisdom.

Also get the cliff notes for “The Prince”

Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell.
[we’ll find out anyway]

The thesis statement itself seems to be poorly stated or defined. What exactly is meant by the terms “contribution”, “transparency” and “accountability”? That statement alone can be read in so many different ways as to make it essentially meaningless.

But to answer your question and step into another thicket are you really asking for “principles” of diplomacy and military secrets (they’re not the same, obviously) or the “purposes” of those things?

It has always seemed to me that the first “principle” of diplomacy is not to say or do anything too concretely or directly. If you’re on the verge of total war with another nation, then you “express displeasure” (and make sure that it’s reported that way in the newspapers), but if a diplomat’s political leadership is put out of joint by, say, a social faux pas, then that leads to “full and frank discussions” which you make sure get reported in the newspapers as “we really laid into them”. In other words, don’t make things appear to be what they are. Obfuscate, misdirect and hedge.

And the principle of military secrets is to hide everything from everyone for as long as possible.

But those “principles” have purposes that you haven’t asked about, and it seems to me that the purposes are entirely germane to the argument.

Most people find sustenance in the Truth, even an uncomfortable one, if they’d rather not know, i guess they must be content with living a fictitious, fantasy based existence, there is something infantile and ostrich like about that, with lot’s of nasty surprises in store too. Of course there are those that know the truth but would rather you didn’t know, They are a particularly distasteful bunch. But is it any wonder that after the WMD fiasco in Iraq, people are beginning to lose patience with the official line? Who was it that said information is the currency of Democracy?

This would be very amusing if it weren’t so dangerous. Information is kept confidential, not so those those on your team can’t find out but rather so that the enemy doesn’t find out. There would not have been an issue with every American knowing the exact date and time of the invasion of Normandy. It only becomes a problem if the Germans knew. So it was kept secret.

And who should be making those decisions. Military or government officials or some guy with a web site and an agenda. It seems striking that there was such an uproar about Valery Plame but self righteous hyperbole when it comes to other issues.

Can it be abused, of course. But are you ready to leave it to the sole discretion of Julian Assange, to determine what is in our best national security interests? A very troubling turn of events.