Diplomacy can be said to in a constant state of evolution or re-invention, while in a few decades ago diplomacy was about state to state affairs; today we talk about new forms of diplomacy such as public diplomacy. Public Diplomacy on its own can very controversial since its essential about public opinion; there are many questions about its relevance which I will try to address in this blog.
Joseph Nye talks about the importance of foreign opinion to the US Foreign Policy, he says that ‘good reputation fosters goodwill which therefore brings acceptance for unpopular ventures’. An example of this can be seen with the happening of 9/11 in USA soil where the US not only got the sympathy of the ‘world population’ but also the support for the Afghanistan invasion. But in my reality it wasn’t the support of ‘the world’ that lead USA to Afghanistan but their own will, like in the case of the Iraq invasion in 2003. Where America invaded the country against the will of many people and states and even without the support or resolution from the United Nations.
While foreign opinion may facilitate ‘unpopular ventures’ it has no power or influence in today’s world. Not even with the improvements in technology and the easy access that people to information matters; because we simply not aware of all the facts that are considered behind certain decisions taken by diplomats or state representatives. The media has it’s own agenda their main goal is to make profit like any business, therefore a selection of new and how this new are delivered is required; which consequently can have many different meanings. Also the diversion of public opinion is too much to be taken into consideration. Public Diplomacy for me in a way it's like democracy that we have today, a coercive tool way to make the uneducated masses happy, by making them think that they can make a difference if their voices are heard.
Hi - i like the fact that you are criticizing public diplomacy for being propaganda (?) misleading the masses and fooling them to believe that they actually listened to.
ReplyDeleteI see public diplomacy as, like you, a tool for connect and communicate to the public and make them want what you want by influencing their desires, dreams and wished. I read an interesting book on the concept of power - called "Power - a radical view" by Steven Lukes. He argues that there is third dimensions of power, similar to the ones described by Nye.
But I still would like to raise some concerns. You mention that foreign opinion has no power or influence today. I assume that you mean the public opinion in foreign countries. In my opinion, there is a cosmopolitan awareness raising in the age of globalization, connecting people, even if some would argue this 'closeness' and sense of 'togetherness' is nothing but contructed by internet and communication technology, still excluding many people of the earth. But still, I wuld say that foreign opinion have a greater role today than it used to have during the age of traditional diplomacy where only state's decided the international political agenda. You are saying that people are not aware of the decision-making process, which I would like to agree on, even if we have witness a greater openess in negotiations than before, and also that media influences our interests and decides what information we should identify with. But still, I would say that you underrestimate the power of the people and citizen participation. There is examples of when public pressure have succeded in turning the EU position in many important matters and thus influencing the international negotiations.
I think power are disappearing from the sphere of the nation states and are distributed on a multitude of new actors and agents on different levels and in different dimensions, making it very difficult to reject the importance of citizen participation and public opinion in other countries - in a more politically interconnected and globalized world system.
Accordingly, I would like to say that I think most of the power are actually moving towards big businesses, also drawing power from the people of the world.
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