Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you’re probably aware of the more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables — many of them marked secret — which have found their way to the whistleblower web site Wikileaks and have now begun to surface in the media.
In the few days prior to the documents’ release, the U.S. government has been in damage control mode, warning those who may have damaging and unflattering information released about them.
Clinton went on to say that these leaks would put lives at risk and would “sabotage the peaceful relations between nations.”
While it is never good for any government to have any of its sensitive foreign policy information released, let alone the amount that has already been released, I don’t believe it will have as catastrophic an impact as is currently being made out.
Although it should be noted that Wikileaks has obtained a vast amount of information and only a small amount of which has come to the surface thus far, nothing that has come out so far is particularly surprising or damaging.
Sure, there have been one or two things that may add fuel to the fire of some current global hot spots, such as the revelation that China may be ready to accept Korean reunification under the leadership of South Korea, or the fact that some Middle Eastern leaders had privately urged the U.S. to attack Iran before they are able to obtain nuclear weapons. However, once again, none of these things are particularly all that surprising.
Take China for example, given its rapid modernization, industrialization and economic growth over the past three decades, it shouldn’t really be a surprise that they would likely see an irrational and isolationist country like North Korea, who is largely dependent upon their aid, as a bit of a nuisance. Thus it is fairly logical to assume that while they would by no means advocate any change to the status quo on the Korean peninsula, if North Korea were to implode itself, the Chinese, under the right conditions, would be at least slightly open to the possibility of Korean reunification under the leadership of the South.
Likewise, it is fairly logical to assume that many of the Gulf States would want to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions at any cost for a number of reasons, some more complex than others. To over simplify, politics, geography, history, religious and cultural tension have a lot to do with it. Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia is currently the most dominant player in the region, if Shi’a dominated Iran, who the Saudis have historically held animosity towards, were to get their hands on a nuclear weapon, then the dynamics of the region would change overnight. This would also explain why some of the smaller gulf states like Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would want Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be stopped for fear of the insecurity it would cause in an already unstable region.
What the release of these documents does, is allow us, the public, to become sort of global voyeurs of international politics, getting a rare and unfiltered personal look at some of the world’s foreign policy issues from the perspective of the United States government.
Sure there are also some juicy bits about Russia, such as the U.S. government’s unconfirmed speculation that Russia is currently a state run by the mob, or that current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has amassed a vast amount of wealth stashed in foreign banks, said to be worth as much as $40 billion US, or that current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is “Robin” to Putin’s “Batman.”
As juicy as these particular cables may be, there have already been stories circulating in the media about each of these items long before they were leaked. For example, the New York Times’ Above the Law series talks about some of those very same issues. As for Putin’s alleged wealth? The Guardian reported that in 2007.
For his part, Putin defended himself on Larry King Live, calling the leaked documents “slanderous.”
Other issues such as U.S. fears that Pakistani nuclear weapon technology might fall into the hands of terrorist groups is not such a big revelation, as this has been a major story in the media for some time now, and one would think that it would be unfathomable for the U.S. not to be concerned about it.
Another major issue was that Hillary Clinton ordered U.S. embassy staff to spy on foreign leaders and officials, including high level United Nations (UN) diplomats such as Ban-Ki Moon, the secretary-general. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the man at the centre of this whole scandal, has called for Clinton’s resignation based on this. I am by no means condoning this unwarranted action by the U.S. government, but it would be naive to think that they are the only government spying on officials. If governments’ didn’t conduct such activities, then there would be no need for intelligence agencies.
While there is no doubt that these leaks have caused a significant amount of damage, I am not naive, nor arrogant enough to claim to know what impact these leaks will have on global foreign policy. As there is literally a mountain of information to sift through, with more and more being added, its impact is completely uncertain.
However tantalizing and enticing these leaks might be to both news organizations as well as the average reader, it is also important to note that it easy to get lost in this whirlwind of information, and we must not forget that there are plenty of major issues going on in the world today that are as important, if not more so, to focus on than some embarrassing leaked U.S. state secrets, which seemingly just add colour to many issues which have already been out there.
