For the third time in almost six months, classified documents pertaining to the affairs of the United States’ abroad were released by the “media” organization WikiLeaks. The implications of this release will not be seen fully until the complete series of documents are vetted, analyzed and released by a select group of international media outlets. The documents released so far are far from damning in a geopolitical sense, but rest assured, we’ve only just seen the beginning.

In July of this year, the international public was invited to witness the brutality of the war in Afghanistan, detailing the unnecessary collateral damage and the complicated relationships between the U.S., other Western powers and those ostensibly charged with stabilizing and democratizing a still-floundering nation.

October saw the release of the Iraq War Logs, shedding light once again on the widespread cover-up of thousands of civilian deaths. Given the somewhat dated nature of the documents released, the strategic response by the U.S. was minimal. A number of news organizations editorialized on the release, noting that these documents were truly only an official confirmation of the stark realities of modern warfare. Regardless of the documents’ less than surprising nature, yet another wave of scrutiny was heaped upon our involvement abroad. This most recent release, however, is far-removed from the body counts and field reports of the two former.

In what is reported by German magazine Der Spiegel to amount to 251,287 documents originating from the State Department, a series of diplomatic cables and reports details the United States’ and its allies’ observations and attempts to size up the global political scene as we know it. The cables are often frank, a number of them humorous even, but this signals a crisis for all nations caught up in the storm.

With the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Americans were faced with the revelation that their government had essentially been lying to them, keeping crucial information and knowledge on American involvement in Vietnam from an unwitting public. Now we are seeing relations the world over called into question, alliances soon to be more closely examined and the full extent to which the U.S. exerts its influence on the global stage.

However revealing, candid or downright ugly many of these already-released diplomatic cables are, it presents two unique opportunities not only for the U.S., but for the world.

We have one of the most thorough and far-reaching diplomatic systems in the world; this networking and subsequent revealing offers us the chance to better address critical issues ranging from espionage and the promulgation of democracy to nuclear proliferation and monitoring governmental corruption. It will not be a quick process, and by no means will it be pretty or clean; to be sure, the documents in question will very likely upset and even harm, politically or otherwise, a great number of people and states, but in the grand scheme of things, we could see some honesty and dialogue for once from world leaders.

The release also signals a much needed transparency from our own government. Global diplomacy is anything but a smooth or expedient process, but the State Department could take a cue from the international media outlets that are currently sifting through the documents. The interest in security and withholding this information, at least from what has been seen by the wider public so far, is far outweighed by the benefits imparted by revealing it. This may very well change in the coming weeks as we begin to see the impact of the documents, but this is a step toward a mutually-responsible and informed government and public.

This will be a pivotal point for American foreign relations, there is certainly no doubting that, but whereas our government has condemned the release, it is the responsibility of all who claim some semblance of knowledge or investment in the world in which we live to take advantage of this development. Like a contemporary Robin Hood, WikiLeaks is taking from the powerful and giving to the oblivious; it’s in their hands to address this information, it’s in ours to at the very least be aware of it.

Jake Begun ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.