It has become cliché to lament the decline of American power, and Washington’s inability to get what it wants in geopolitically fraught places like Syria and Ukraine only reinforces the point. Yet the diplomatic effort in eastern Congo, where the U.S. government has much leverage but little national interest, offers a tentative example of American power actually appearing to accomplish something, and an instruction in how sustained diplomatic coercion can push a long and bloody conflict toward something resembling peace—especially when nobody’s paying attention. “The real lesson here,” John Kerry told me, “is that diplomacy works, and persistence pays off.”
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