Eli Lake, Columnist

The Anti-Democratic Temptation of the Foreign-Policy Experts

There's a fringe in conservative policy making that wants to get the politicians out of the process.

May 20, 2016 at 5:46 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Chas Freeman, right.
Photographer: JONATHAN ERNST/AFP/Getty Images

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American foreign policy is in trouble. There are career diplomats, military officers, spies and analysts who understand the world. And there are politicians, journalists and advocates who don't. Sadly, the knowledgeable serve the know-nothings and the ship of state careens in folly.

This is the considered view of former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, who spoke Wednesday at a conference on American statecraft sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute.