The scorpion never changes: a brutal lesson in foreign policy - opinion
The most dangerous assumption in foreign policy is not overestimating an enemy’s strength; it is assuming an enemy secretly wants what we want.
Assessment
This opinion piece challenges the diplomatic premise that adversaries can be coaxed into shared goals through engagement or pressure. The author argues that such thinking leads to strategic blunders, as it projects one's own values onto actors with fundamentally different objectives. Readers should watch for whether this critique gains traction in policy debates beyond this single columnist.