These are these crude terms, “ son of a bitch », which United States President Joe Biden used during a speech to talk about Russian President Vladimir Putin. This very undiplomatic language should have no place in the mouth of a head of state, even less in that of the president of the leading world power.
This gratuitous insult unfortunately appears to be the symbol of a more generalized drift in public speech, particularly that of certain political leaders. We obviously think of Donald Trump, who is not shy of profanity or outrageous remarks. But it has become relatively common, here as elsewhere, for prime ministers, ministers and deputies to insult their counterparts, or mayors, or demonstrators.
It’s not even necessarily seen as a weakness or something bad in itself. Restraint, formalism, as well as diplomatic language, have a rather bad reputation. Today we boast of his outspokenness and the politician who goes beyond all limits of decorum will often be perceived by part of public opinion as someone true and authentic, who does not use the language Of wood. This conception of a skin-deep truth and authenticity leads us to prefer the language of emotion to that of reason. But it quickly reaches its limits when this so-called thoughtless frankness only finds expression in foul language.
To return to this extremely vulgar expression used by Joe Biden, if insulting an individual or a political opponent in this way is never smart (especially for someone who claims to defend democracy), let’s say that insulting another leader in this way of State is downright stupid, and above all inconsistent. International relations are not a playground or a closed field where we can, without too many consequences, throw hurtful words in each other’s faces.
International trade — including war — brings together sovereign and therefore at least theoretically equal countries. This is what justifies a language of diplomacy which seeks to accommodate sensitivities in order to maintain the possibilities of a present or future dialogue. When we insult someone, we do not treat them as an equal, we seek to lower them to the ground, to humiliate them. By acting in this way towards a sovereign state, we act as if we do not recognize it as having any legitimacy. Whether we call it an “Evil Empire” or “the Evil One” or a “rogue state”, whether we consider its leaders to be terrorists or madmen, it is always a way of saying that these countries and their governments lie outside the circle of morality or reason, even outside humanity, and that these must be either overthrown or destroyed.
Whatever one thinks of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, insulting its leader is neither reasonable nor constructive. Russia may arguably lose the war it itself started by invading Ukraine, although it is also possible that it will win; but in any case it is more than improbable that it will be defeated to the point of having to capitulate unconditionally… In the same vein, and even if in politics we are never safe from a surprise , it is hardly plausible that we will see, in the short term, the current Russian president ousted from power in Moscow. Not to mention that the United States has no means to depose him against his will or that of the Russians. In other words, whatever the military outcome of the raging conflict, one day we will have to negotiate with Vladimir Putin to put an end to it. Ultimately, cannons will have to give way to words of diplomacy.
However, we do not negotiate with someone by treating them as “ son of a bitch “, how difficult it is to bring to the negotiating table someone you have sought to humiliate and dishonor. The insult between heads of state is part of a Manichean and bellicose rhetoric which can only push wars to drag on, since there is no longer any solution to put an end to them other than the annihilation of this an enemy who is denied, through such insults, any moral or rational character, and any legitimacy.
From the moment we recognize that there will be no annihilation of Russia, and — worse — that it will remain after the war, whatever happens, a great power and an essential actor in international relations, these insults launched at Putin are only words, useless rantings, which only have harmful effects. They are the language of powerlessness.