Politics & Power Quote by Donald Evans

Diplomacy loves a compliment that doubles as a leash, and Donald Evans delivers it with practiced smoothness. Calling Morocco an "important friend" is less about affection than alignment: it signals that the U.S. is invested in Morocco as a stable partner in a strategically sensitive region, and that this partnership is contingent on behavior Washington can publicly endorse.

The praise is carefully engineered. "We applaud your political and economic reforms" folds two agendas into one sentence: democratic legitimacy and market-friendly governance. That coupling isn’t accidental; it frames reform as a single package of changes that make Morocco both more governable in Western eyes and more legible to investors. The line about parliamentary elections being "widely reported" as "fair and open" is a tell. Evans doesn’t swear they were fair; he cites the reporting. It’s a political hedge that protects the U.S. from owning the claim outright while still conferring the stamp of legitimacy Morocco wants.

Context matters: early-2000s U.S. foreign policy was hungry for "model" narratives in the Arab world, especially after 9/11, when Washington needed examples of moderate, cooperative governments to validate its regional strategy. The subtext is: keep moving in this direction and you’ll get U.S. approval, aid, trade, and security partnership. Stop, and that rhetorical warmth can cool fast. It’s encouragement, but also a reminder of who gets to grade the test.