Washington, March 04: US Department of Defense’s top officer Admiral Mike Mullen says America’s foreign affairs are dominated by military doctrines which need to be replaced by diplomacy.
Pentagon’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff criticized the dominant role of military in foreign policy in a speech at Kansas State University on Wednesday and said the US needed “soft power” in its foreign interactions.
“US foreign policy is still too dominated by the military, too dependent upon the generals and admirals who lead our major overseas commands and not enough on the State Department,” AFP quoted the Pentagon’s ranking officer as saying.
“It’s one thing to be able and willing to serve as emergency responders, quite another to always have to be fire chief,” he added.
Mullen stressed that the military “should never be the only tool” of US power.
He called for a speedy shift needed to readjust the military’s role with diplomacy and other civilian efforts but noted, “My fear, quite frankly, is that we aren’t moving fast enough in this regard.”
The top US military officer said that unless Washington turns to more civilian power in its foreign dealings, “we should expect to see that influence diminish over time.”
——-Agencies