People and organizations who make large mistakes should have to live with them. In the field of diplomacy, what you do and say is increasingly in the public domain. The quality of your decisions and your capacity to effectively execute them is increasingly on display. This spotlight, unnerving to some degree, should result in improved performance. Accountability practically always does.
Speed is still another characteristic of the information age.
When combined with the wide access prevalent even now, the pressure is on for rapid reactions, for operation in real time. Of course, you need not let the pace of information pace your decisions, but there are times when there is hardly any alternative. It is especially at such times that a set of strategic ideas can pay off handsomely in facilitating not only quick, but good decisions. One of my concerns in this age of instant communication, often by telephonic or other informal means, is the problem of record keeping. If it seems simple in the archives, try it in the maelstrom.