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With the eleventh-hour announcement of a two-week cease-fire with Iran on Tuesday night, America’s most infamous diplomatic duo is poised to once again take center stage in this weekend’s negotiations in Pakistan. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have been instrumental to this administration’s foreign policy, and to U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to resolve outstanding conflicts around the world through mediation.

In practice, they have been largely unsuccessful, a fact often blamed on their relative inexperience with diplomacy. Indeed, the president’s son-in-law and friend are both real estate investors, better positioned to manage business mergers than complex questions of nuclear proliferation, war, and peace. But Kushner and Witkoff—and the Trumpian approach to diplomacy more broadly—are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to America’s diplomatic problems. Until policymakers can figure out how to marry flexible thinking with expertise, America is likely to remain stuck in a diplomatic rut.

With the eleventh-hour announcement of a two-week cease-fire with Iran on Tuesday night, America’s most infamous diplomatic duo is poised to once again take center stage in this weekend’s negotiations in Pakistan. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have been instrumental to this administration’s foreign policy, and to U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to resolve outstanding conflicts around the world through mediation.

In practice, they have been largely unsuccessful, a fact often blamed on their relative inexperience with diplomacy. Indeed, the president’s son-in-law and friend are both real estate investors, better positioned to manage business mergers than complex questions of nuclear proliferation, war, and peace. But Kushner and Witkoff—and the Trumpian approach to diplomacy more broadly—are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to America’s diplomatic problems. Until policymakers can figure out how to marry flexible thinking with expertise, America is likely to remain stuck in a diplomatic rut.

Few would doubt that diplomacy and peacebuilding are good things in theory. Indeed, as Trump chose to remind everyone last year in various tweets and speeches, the Bible tells us that peacemakers are to be especially revered. The moral........

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