U.S. pipe dreams of a democratic Palestine and a peaceful Iranian Islamic Republic

The president recently announced that the United States will shift American foreign policy strategy from military intervention to “relentless diplomacy.” Translated into the jargon of the foreign policy establishment, this means a downgrading of “hard power” capability to an emphasis on “soft power” persuasion in negotiations

By announcing this general diplomatic strategy beforehand however, the president has weakened both the hard power and the soft power impacts to our foreign policy strategy.

Without question, diplomacy is the preferred path to solving international problems and conflicts....