Welcome to Kapok Tree Diplomacy. The kapok tree is a towering and majestic tree native to tropical rainforests, rising to heights of over 150 feet, and providing food and shelter to hundreds of plants and animals dependent on the sunlight found above the canopy. The aim of this foreign affairs-related site is to provide a similar source of light and resources in the form of detailed inquiry into the complex issues of international relations as analyzed through the worldview and prism of the theistic Christian worldview. As a student and practitioner of international relations as well as a Christian, I tend to follow in the footsteps of a far more accomplished scholar who was well known for blending the Christian worldview into his own keen analysis of foreign affairs - Reinhold Niebuhr.

Accordingly, this site will have many branches, many concerning foreign affairs and diplomacy; some concerning other ideals such as democracy and liberty; and still other branches on things like Art, Culture, Entertainment, Religion and Science. It was Niebuhr who said, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  I reject the God-complex that man can fix the world and all of its ills armed with merely his own reason and knowledge apart from God.

Like Niebuhr, I enjoy challenging many of the accepted ideas and opinions of the established academic, journalistic and philosophical elites, especially the presuppositional planks of the worldviews upon which those ideas and opinions are built. I welcome all to the site - young and old, men and women, religious and non-religious, the students, academics and practitioners of international relations, and the curious and undecided. The site is currently in its infancy, so I ask for your patience as I slowly build it over time.

Enjoy the site and remember, "Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love."  Niebuhr

Jeff Dwiggins
January 2013

* The posts, views and opinions expressed on this site are completely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy or the Armed Forces.