“I have the high ground”
Star Wars meme, or one of America’s most valuable policy assets?
Strategic positioning in warfare has been touted by every great military commander since Sun Tzu as one of the most valuable aspects of strategic warfare, with moral positioning being its equally important counterpart in strategic diplomacy. In this blog, I will explain the importance of moral high ground in diplomatic relations with China in particular using hypothetical and real-life case studies. I will begin by explaining the definition of the moral high ground and its importance in general politics before presenting the issue from the perspective of US-CN relations.
The moral high ground, in terms of diplomacy, is the ability to come to a diplomatic session with historical and present standing in the international community as the “good guys.” Like its counterpart in traditional warfare, moral high ground is a spectrum: a castle on the hill is higher than the field below it, but is overshadowed by the fortress on the mountain. Likewise, the United States may have a relative moral high ground compared to, say, Russia, but that isn’t to say that it has the high ground in all contexts relative to all other countries. The United States, along with any other country, is not always the “good guys.”
In terms of diplomacy, moral high ground often dictates a diplomatic discussion before it…
