The Highs and Lows of Diplomacy

My initial thoughts on diplomacy were based around the old school vision of the diplomat; leather backed chair in a mahogany paneled room, somewhere out in the vast reaches of a fading empire, helping British interests with a light touch here, a word in the right ear at cocktail parties. I was well aware of the vast array of multi-lateral conferences and institutions, aware of the role of NGOs throughout the globe but had somehow not related them to the institution of diplomacy.

The image I had was, of course that of the old diplomacy. Having studied the new diplomacy, my overwhelming impression is that of voices and many of them. Voices bring power. The louder the voice the more power the speaker has. Whereas, once upon a time, the great powers had tremendous voices that drowned out everything around, now there are a multitude of voices. You can still hear the great powers, but those other millions increasingly swamp them.

Multilateral diplomacy has allowed poorer countries to pool their power, as we saw by the walkouts in Cancun and Copenhagen, resisting the dominance of the powerful. NGOs allow small groups with a vision to engage the injustices they encounter in the world, even if that might be counter to their nations immediate interest. The internet has enabled like-minded people to congregate in cyber-space, coming together to fight on a political platform, to tremendous effect, for virtually no financial outlay what so ever.

There are darker sides, however. This dispersal of power has left the nation state incapable, in many instances, of reining in the larger multi-national corporations, who have in turn, gained from the power dispersal, increasing their influence through the media of public diplomacy, advertising and the lobby system. Perhaps it will fall to the NGOs to set the moral agenda using the currency of public opinion.

The most lasting impression for me is a possible vision of the future of diplomacy, given to us by Gordenker & Weiss, (sorry to quote this again). “In the process, NGOs might pioneer the formation of a new kind of transnational society in which individuals and their voluntary associations replace IGOs and governments as the immediate source of various social services now usually associated with the territorially based state.” I suppose the reason I embrace this quote is the potential I see in its enactment, coupled with the very real possibility of it coming to pass.

Gordenker & Weiss, Devolving Responsibilities: A Framework for Anylising NGOs and Services. (1997) pp. 453