Over the past decade it has become fashionable in Washington to believe that only when a situation is ‘ripe’—that is, when the belligerents are ‘hurting’—should the United States expend diplomatic capital, and especially the scarcest resource of all, the president's time, to seek a solution. This perspective exhibits common-sense wisdom, but it also harbors a rationale for avoiding tough, complex issues.
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2001
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