While headlines scream about U.S. diplomatic collapse, the Pentagon regularly sponsors multinational military exercises across the globe in which collectively dozens of countries participate. Jordan, for example, hosts the annual Eager Lion exercises. After the 1978 Camp David Accords, the United States and Egypt began annual Bright Star exercises in Egypt. Morocco will soon begin its annual U.S. Africa Command-led African Lion exercises.

While European officials gauge diplomacy by cocktail parties and meetings, military exercises have the virtue of continuing over days and enabling personnel to really get to know each other. It is one thing to make polite conversation in a hotel reception — it is another to stage a landing and a long march with colleagues from different countries. These exercises are not mutually exclusive with diplomacy. Ambassadors and other diplomats observe and have an opportunity to meet with each other and host-nation officials.