The day following my post saw the Herald - one of our country's more established broadsheets -release a significant number of cables it had received. Journalists working for the Herald say there are 250,000 words of diplomatic hush-talk to read, and so far a few "sensational" cables have been reported. Expect more, they say.
I still maintain the overall point: that these cables amount to little more than diplomatic chit-chat between bureaucrats. Few of them are truly "secret". They look like the clippings global news networks like Reuters feed to broadcasters for a fee. If anything, perhaps the amateurish nature of so many of the cables is what's most surprising and damaging to Fortress Washington.
Flattery and Fonterra
The fact New Zealand even registered on the State Department's radar is enough to flatter most Kiwis. The last president adopted a "with us or against us" policy of diplomatic relations. It's true that it was business as usual within the ranks, but officially, we were only "very, very, very close friends" and that's all. Important because friends don't share free trade agreements.
News then that our intelligence relationship was "restored" on August 29, 2009 will have been welcomed by those US-based Kiwi diplomats who had been working hard to improve our relations with Washington. Then prime minister Helen Clark was persuaded to revisit her opinion of the US administration, and although it would never be spoken of publicly in direct terms, it was clear Clark was prepared to talk.
Perhaps she had no choice. New Zealand's defence commitments overseas would be a drain if the economy ever turned, and China's growing emergence is only good to New Zealand if its rise is quarantined by US foreign policy. Naturally then, arrangements were made during discussions. Welcome to the politics of compromise.
One of the latest cables tells of how former prime minister Helen Clark decided to send soldiers to Iraq to stop Fonterra losing Oil for Food contracts.
And welcome to the real world. Heavy landing?
Diplomacy - where it's treated as an extension of the executive back home - will always be about compromise; the idea of an exchange relies on the art of compromise. For New Zealand, sending non-combat engineers to Iraq in 2003/04 to rebuild that country's shattered infrastructure was an acceptable compromise in the circumstances.
I agree that to some the deal smells. It's precisely this smell that keeps so many of these rather ordinary diplomatic deals to the back rooms of conferences on climate change between members of an old-boys network. But it's a representation of what we all either knew or suspected took place all the time. The modern art of diplomacy is more about the quid pro quo than perhaps anyone wants to admit.
Dilemma over the Dalai Lama
The cable revealing the Cabinet's "double talk" on a meeting between prime minister John Key and the anointed spiritual and political leader of Tibet is interesting only so much as it demonstrates Key's propensity for pre-meditated and quite deliberate political management.
Up until now, much of Key's public persona has been based around a relaxed, pragmatic and informal approach to politicking. It's clear his "no harm, no foul" attitude has been something of a front. Key - like all prime ministers of late - has built support around responding to the media and surrendering initiative. Nothing to see here, then.
The final analysis
With even the mainstream media reporting the leak as something of a flop, the only taste we're left with is sour. Clearly, it's what this leak represents that's substantial and not so much what it contains. Aside from confirming some home truths, the leak represents a shift in the value placed on information. It exposes America's State Department as little more than a relay news service, competing with the likes of CNN for a recognisable scoop.
In the final analysis, it's still nice to know that a low-level US private can fundamentally rock the diplomatic community's flying carpet; it's empowering almost to be reminded that even the most impenetrable system is naturally balanced by the humans powering it. Until scientists perfect artificial intelligence, we're safe.
