Professor Nau is beating aroung the bush. There is only one real “negotiating partner” that matters to us in international diplomacy: China. The rest of the world has it’s own issues and can do no more than nip at our heels.
Or align with the Chinese to act against our interests.
The fundamental problem is that we no longer have the economic or fiscal health to sustain our military, and the Chinese know it. They hold our debt; they own us. And I don’t doubt that with the issuance of a series of computer commands, they could take down most of our nation’s defenses, economy and infrastructure. I doubt they’ve been selling us perfectly virus-free computer components all these years.
What are the odds he really believes that "his diplomacy will succeed without power because countries share interests"? As opposed to the alternative, that he is doing these things for the same reason Krishna Menon immobilized the Indian Army while the Chinese were coming over the Himalaya passes in 1962?
What are the odds that he is simply an ideological Benedict Arnold, an actual Quisling, instead?