On Protesting Militarism and Ambassadors

This story is literally close to home.

Bonnie Jenkins, the US Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security, did a quick trip to New Zealand last week, speaking at Victoria University of Wellington.

As many of you know, that’s where I currently teach. And as a few of you probably know, Bonnie and I are in the same larger network. We’ve never worked together, but we have a number of friends in common.

I disagree with some of the policies she advocates for in her current role, but she’s affable, knowledgeable, a good professional mentor (I’ve heard), and has stronger restraint-oriented instincts than most of the Biden administration. In the schema of US nuclear thought, Bonnie is an Arms Controller. Compared to the alternatives (below), that makes her sane.

Her appearance ended up garnering some press, but largely for the wrong reasons.

Bonnie was shouted down by a mass of young protestors rightly upset about America’s hyper-militarism—specifically its material support to an ongoing mass slaughter in Gaza and a China policy that’s doing its part to render East Asia into a powder keg and the Pacific into a sacrifice zone. She was forced to leave after just 15 minutes.

But there are two stories that have been displaced by the narrow coverage of Bonnie getting booed off the stage.