Culture as a factor affecting Diplomatic tactics
Dr. Dimitrios Panagiotis Kamsaris
Introduction
Globalization requires governments to operate in a context different than before, which is to integrate other participants of diplomacy in its own decision-making processes. Governments have been focusing on new strategies, such as involving non-state actors and institutions, providing greater transparency, and acting collectively as often as possible.
Cultural Diplomacy for Hofstede & Hofstede is a usual practice followed by travellers, traders and diplomats. Undeniably, any individual who networks with different cultures enables some practice of cultural exchange, such as international business, sports, science, politics and many more. The exchange of information and cultural ideas, international business cooperation, traders and government representatives can be identified as cultural diplomacy. The interface of individuals, the exchange of language, ideas, arts and societal structures have improved relations between divergent groups of peoples around the world transforming it as a exciting and innovative field of interest, in practice.
Cultural diplomacy as Hofstede & Hofstede argues is the application and implementation of models that include diverse cultural exchange programs, international delegations and sports competitions.
Due to globalization the mass communication technology safeguards countless access between people. Cultural diplomacy is critical to promoting peace & stability all over the world because it holds the ability to influence the opinion globally of individuals, communities, cultures and countries. The principles Cultural Diplomacy are:
• Respect & Recognition of Cultural Diversity & Heritage
• Global Intercultural Dialogue
• Justice, Equality & Interdependence
• The Protection of International Human Rights
• Global Peace & Stability
The tactics to form international relations can be described either hard or soft power and according to Nye soft power is the ability to persuade and get what you want through culture, values and ideas through attraction rather than coercion or payments, while hard power involves activating forces. Through soft power, the use of cultural diplomacy becomes significant.
Regarding the international business world, the will and ability to appreciate and embrace the diverse values and needs of dissimilar cultures is important for the strategic decisions and adopt cultural diplomacy models tactics:
• Increasing social awareness:
o Firms engaged in the development of culturally sensitive marketing plans and campaigns:
Build positive public opinion,
Form a good image,
Financial success.
• Firms expanding globally:
o Free of problems
Conduct research regarding the cultural differences of the new country.
• Firms with local focus:
o Ensure awareness and sensitivity to national cultural minorities.
Bound states that the internet has created a world where cultures meet and mix and reform easily and constantly and countries are increasingly finding that they need to reaffirm their sovereignty to stop their cultures being swamped or changed by access to other cultural outputs. As Mark says, a state’s international cultural mission now involves a more active role in protecting and developing country culture. A country’s cultural identity needs to be strong and constantly reinforced and revitalised, or it will be flooded and lost. A culture is the set of values which underpins a country and the way that other countries use to understand you.
People might already be taking language classes for their new home country. People often think that speaking another language fluently is what intercultural communication is all about. Of course, speaking the local language is extremely helpful. However, social interaction is about much more than language skills. Obviously, as the very phrase suggests, intercultural communication is about cross-cultural competency rather than about language only. So what does it mean? And why should it matter to you?
Inter-, as you’ll probably know, comes from the Latin word for “between”, and the dictionary defines “communication” as “exchanging information”. Therefore, let’s draw the following conclusion: Intercultural communication refers to exchanging information between people from different cultures. It’s the “cultures” part of this simple definition where things start getting a tad complicated. Some say that “culture” is a word with a very vague meaning. To understand what intercultural communication for Hofstede & Hofstede is all about, you first need a good grasp of what “culture” refers to.
One mistake that many people make is to assume that a foreign country’s culture is just this: heritage and arts, food and table manners, social etiquette and family life, festivals and rituals. In fact, experts call this assumption one of the dominant myths about culture. Actually, what you can see and touch is only the smallest part of a different culture.
The ancient Greek city-states sent envoys to each other in order to negotiate specific issues, such as war and peace or commercial relations, but did not have diplomatic representatives regularly posted in each other's territory. Some of the functions given to diplomatic representatives in Ancient Greece were covered by the Proxenos or Counsul as it is referred to today. The Proxenos was a citizen of the host city having a particular relations of friendship with another city, often hereditary in a particular family. In times of peace diplomacy was even conducted with rivals such as the Empire of Persia, though the latter eventually succumbed to the invasions of the Greek king Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was proficient at diplomacy, realizing that in order to conquer certain territories it was important for his Greek troops to associate and make families with native populations. Alexander the Great got married to a woman of Bactria (Afghanistan) Roxana. Diplomacy was a necessary tool of statecraft for the great Hellenistic (Ancient Greek) kingdoms that were established, such as the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire, who fought several wars in the Near East and often negotiated a peace treaty through alliances through marriage.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of countries. It refers to the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to a full range of topical issues. Diplomacy entails influencing the decisions and conduct of foreign governments and officials through dialogue, negotiation, and other nonviolent means. Diplomacy is the main instrument of foreign policy, which consists of the broader goals and strategies that guide a state's interactions with the rest of the world. International treaties, agreements, alliances, and other manifestations of foreign policy are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. Diplomats may also help shape a state's foreign policy in an advisory capacity.
All countries want to be recognised as legitimate by the other countries through different factors, including having the mandate from the domestic population to conduct relationships within the international arena.
To be success in that, the country must have • a sense of what it wishes to portray to the outside world, and what it wishes to gain from the interaction.
The relationships between countries were built by finding common ground and trying to build long term relationships. Recently, this tendency has changed and short term goals are being sought by nations to fulfil economic purposes.
The countries purposes incorporate a foreign policy, which is the substance, aims and attitudes of its relations with others. Diplomacy is one of the tools used to accomplish these purposes and to put these aims into effect and the main role of diplomacy is negotiation and representing the country’s interests overseas. Diplomats, as Evans urge, must manage relationships, identify common interests with other states and uphold the rules and procedures which regulate the international system. Countries operate in an environment where maintaining relationships with other countries is vital for their security.
Bound says that culture has always been a part of a country’s foreign policy and has been used to showcase their society and their power for centuries. Many countries posts overseas where they
• display their culture,
• teach their language
• encourage the populations of other countries to get to know them.
Culture can communicate what is important to a country and show others the values and beliefs that are important to the country. As Der Derian states diplomacy is presented as a response to a condition of human relations that exist separately from it. People live in separate political units and because these units have relations with one another, the need for diplomacy arises. For Der Derian every time diplomats attempt to reconcile national positions, whether it be on the future of a piece of territory, the size of fishing quotas, or limits on the production of carbon dioxide, the premise on which they operate helps to reproduce a world in which positions on such issues are both multiple and national. Diplomacy manages the consequences of separateness and reproduces the conditions out of which those consequences arise.
As Martin and Smith write, diplomacy is not primarily about building trust, but about achieving specific, policy-driven transactional objectives. Trust is a by-product of diplomacy, but tends to be in the shorter rather than the longer term. Palmerston says that nations don’t have permanent friends, but only have permanent interests. Diplomacy takes place in an international environment that can no longer be described as exclusively state-centric, and diplomats have a stake in different forms of transnational relations.
Diplomacy:
• main purpose: the art of resolving international difficulties peacefully,
• principal agents: the conduct of relations between sovereign states through the medium of accredited representatives
• chief function: the management of international relations by negotiation.
The aim of diplomacy:
• to protect and guide the individual interests of states and
• to promote global norms and values characterizing the growing sense of a community of countries and international unity.