Cribgeworthy. . .

(Cringeworthy. . .)

Otto von Bismarck, Prussia's "Iron Chancellor," the author of realpolitik, founder of the German Empire, known as the "Circus Rider of Europe," can be considered perhaps the most skilled diplomat that inhabited any Ministry, though a combination of diplomacy and force, was able to combine the Kingdom of Prussia and what was known as the North German Confederation into a single "Empire," under the rule of a Hohenzollern Monarch. In the creation of the German Empire, however, Bismarck completed a circuit in Central Europe. In Prussia's annexation of Schleswig-Holstein, the defeat of Austria and then France, Wilhelm I declared German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the German Empire was an established reality, that the Empire had hostile neighbors to the east and west and to keep the situation stable, Chancellor Bismarck encouraged speres of influence or balances of power. That had been the reasoning behind Bismarck's Three Emperors' League and the Re-Issuance Treaty. The Iron Chancellor had been the only one alive who could have achieved that balance. However, Kaisar Willhelm II had tired of Bismarck's overwhelming presence and dismissed him in 1890. Without his expertise, the German Empire lost its best chance to avoid going to war and, when the Guns of August opened up 1914 had been when Otto von Bismarck was missed.

If there is a complete opposite to the extensive diplomatic skill of an Otto von Bismarck, it would have to be Joe Biden. Mr. Biden is one of those who could walk outside without realizing he is naked. When the G20 convenes next month, minus China and Russia, the President will need to be able to participate in the discussions with the other world leaders. As one can guess, Biden will be focused on climate change and could point to Maui and Florida to accentuate his point. And all he has to would be to remain coherent.

Normally, an economic summit such as this would necessarily include Chinese and Russian representatives. Their absence reflects the irrelevance with which Beijing and Moscow are viewing the conference. They see the weakness of President Biden and cannot help but notice his policies on energy. As an example, the Biden Administration is being seen as promoting renewables to the purposeful exclusion of all fossil resources, including leases in Alaska. That is making gas prices escalate. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is retarding its own production and that is keeping oil high and, being honest, the Russians in the Ukraine.

If there is a word for President Biden and his international activities, it would be amateurish. God save us from amateurs. That being said, real players on the world stage, those who know the game, because they play it, they operate realpolitik themselves. Like Chancellor Bismarck, there is no other choice.