Public Diplomacy In Modern Era

Yuba Nath Lamsal Diplomacy is communication between states and international actors. Thus, effective communication and dissemination of information are necessary for better performance in diplomatic duties. Diplomacy has a wider role and a bigger responsibility for peace and a just world order. As diplomacy plays a key role in preventing conflicts and nurturing peace in the world, even the slightest miscalculation and misstep may cause disaster. The scope of modern diplomacy covers not only maintaining good relations with states but encompass several other pertinent issues and dynamics that have direct bearing on democracy, development, human rights, climate change, economy, trade, investment, labour, migration and several other issues. A diplomatic task requires understanding the basic and fundamental elements of communication and objectives. The fundamental objective of communication is to transmit messages. Communication has four elements — communicator or sender, the message, the medium and the receiver. If the message is correctly received and understood by the receiver in the way the sender means is communication. When the information and messages are wrongly understood, that is not communication but becomes miscommunication. Miscommunication or lack of communication creates misunderstanding and conflict. A diplomat needs to understand it and accordingly act in diplomatic communication. Miscommunication Miscommunication occurs due to various reasons, which include the contents of the message itself, procedures of sending messages, the medium and the psychology of the receiver. In the act of communication, clarity in messages, effective procedures, and appropriate media are fundamentally important. Similarly, it is also important to understand to whom and why the messages are being sent. Based on these factors, the messages are created and disseminated that serve the purpose of communication. Diplomacy has undergone a sea change. Gone are the days of old and traditional style and approaches to diplomacy. Traditional diplomacy is basically communicating between two governments through foreign ministries and their diplomatic missions. The traditional diplomacy is generally secretive, more formal, protocol-conscious, ceremonial and elitist. In traditional diplomacy, officials, bureaucrats and elites dominate the show while the public and citizens take a back seat. The advancement of science and technology has reduced the world into a small global village, making countries ever more interconnected and interdependent. We are in the era of the fifth industrial revolution, which is the digital revolution or the era of artificial intelligence. Humans have started depending heavily on machines for almost everything, while machines work like humans. In diplomacy, too, the technology has eased our tasks to a large extent and at the same time, it has added some challenges, too. Diplomats and foreign policy interlocutors, therefore, must keep pace with these new changes and developments in the field of science and technology, which alone can make diplomacy more effective and efficient, producing better results. Multiple actors and agents are active in diplomacy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pivotal in the conduct of diplomacy but its role has increasingly been more like coordinating and facilitating among different stakeholders and actors in the conduct of diplomacy. Even within the state mechanism, multiple organs and bodies seek to play a key role in promoting the country’s image, promoting relations and fostering cooperation among nations and peoples. State organs like parliament, military and political parties maintain contacts, communicate, exchange and cooperate with their counterparts in different countries that help create a better image of the country, protect national interest and foster better relations with other countries. Parliamentary diplomacy and military diplomacy are therefore an important part of a country’s overall diplomacy. Non-state actors, too, can play an equally important role in diplomacy. Civil society organisations, chambers of commerce, business persons, cultural entities, academics and scholars, media, non-governmental organisations and diaspora also play their own role in building the image of the country abroad and nurturing relations and cooperation at both government and people’s level. This is a part of public diplomacy or citizen diplomacy that mobilises and activates multiple channels and sectors in the interest of the country. In recent days, public diplomacy has gained currency and it is more popular and attractive, which governments and diplomats seem to have accorded prominence. Under public diplomacy, different channels and networks are activated other than the government systems, to reach out to the people of the host countries. This method has been in practice in the world for a long time for various purposes, mainly for espionage. But it was not used as a public diplomacy tool. Traditionalists are of the view that diplomacy is an art for which especially trained persons are to be assigned to handle it. According to them, the general public are not aware of diplomatic nitty-gritty and such people may mess up things in the name of public diplomacy. Form of propaganda G.R Berridge and Alan James, thus, call public diplomacy a ‘form of propaganda'. However, this may not always be true as public diplomacy has been an integral part of modern diplomacy and at times, public diplomacy has proved to be more effective and result-oriented than traditional and official diplomacy. It, however, depends upon who and what is involved in this process. Thus, Berridge and James, too, take public diplomacy as a ‘necessary evil of international life’. Nepal does not have much leverage and soft power to influence the international system and foreign policy conduct. Effective diplomacy and public diplomacy are the better tools that need to be applied and executed more effectively and efficiently to produce desired results. But Nepal has not yet fully utilised its soft powers and available tools, including public diplomacy. The media is an important tool for public diplomacy. The Nepali diaspora is present in more than 100 countries in various capacities and the Non-Resident Nepali Association has its branches in 86 countries. The Nepali diaspora can be an important asset in public diplomacy initiatives in various countries, provided they are properly mobilised. However, there has been a lacuna on the part of the government to utilise various tools of public diplomacy. As a result, our diplomacy has not been very strong and effective. (The author is a former chief editor of this daily and a former ambassador. lamsalyubanath@gmail.com)