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What Diplomats Can Still Learn From the First Christmas

What Diplomats Can Still Learn From the First Christmas
A depiction of the Three Magi at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi, Vietnam, Dec. 23, 2017 (DPA photo by Pascal Deloche via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Guest columnist Richard Gowan is filling in for Stewart Patrick this week.

Christmas is a time to revisit comforting stories and traditions. And so, this Yuletide, I feel a warmth on returning to World Politics Review to analyze the tale of the Three Magi.

Five years ago, while writing a weekly column for WPR, I used a festive piece to make light fun of the Magi—or Three Kings, or Three Wise Men—who feature in the Gospel of Matthew. The Magi famously approached Herod, then king in Jerusalem, to ask directions to a baby “born king of the Jews” in Bethlehem. Herod, disturbed about the potential competition, gave them directions to Bethlehem, but he also asked them to report back to him on this disruptive child.

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