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| Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks at the Release of the 2015 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (Image: Flickr User - U.S. Department of State) |
By Ankit Panda
The U.S. Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) offers insight into problems facing U.S. foreign policy.
The U.S. Department of State’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) came out earlier this week. The document is an introspective look into the diplomatic apparatus of the world’s foremost superpower and one that allows outsiders to glean, among other things, what keeps the bureaucrats down in Foggy Bottom awake at night. In the State Department’s more anodyne description of the document, the QDDR “provides a blueprint for advancing America’s interests in global security, inclusive economic growth, climate change, accountable governance, and freedom for all.”
This year’s big takeaway, as commentators elsewhere have noted, is that the State Department fears for the longevity and quality of the post-war international system that the United States helped created. This ‘house that Uncle Sam built’ is starting to show its age and irrelevance due to both outdated international governance models (internal factors) and rising powers such as China (external factors). The report triumphantly describes the United States’ post-war achievement:
Read the full story at The Diplomat