If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything—Anatol Lieven at Responsible Statecraft
He is talking about the US non-involvement in the most recent Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and he is talking about lessons in foreign relations, and notes that the ability to face uncertainty with measured inaction is, "The most important [lesson] of all is the one expressed to me by a Chinese official (in a different context) many years ago."
When one looks at some of the most egregious foreign policy failures in modern US history, Libya comes to mind in particular, it seems that things have been done because of a vague feeling that, "Something had to be done," as opposed to actually knowing what the f%$# actually should be done.
Much of what passes for US foreign policy seems to be about, "Maintaining our world leadership position," without regard to actually advancing US interests.
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