Role of Citizen Diplomacy in Shaping Contemporary World Politics - Essay Example

Role of Citizen Diplomacy in Shaping Contemporary World Politics Introduction Citizen politics refers to the political concept affirming the engagement of average citizen in the political process as the representative of country or specific cause. The citizen diplomacy usually finds its implication in the cases where the official channels appear to be unreliable or undesirable (Melissen, 2008). Citizen diplomacy has been evolved as an important part of contemporary world politics because it is now commonly used where the formal politicians fail to meet the expectations of the situation or became unable to conduct the political process. Citizen diplomacy has been widely viewed as an ideal tool of statecraft. In this process, the countries do not engage in the direct negotiation but they interact through scientific exchanges, cultural exchange and cross border sporting events (Osgood and Etheridge, 2000). Citizen diplomacy is based upon the concept that each and every individual living in the country possesses the right and responsibility to participate and help in shaping the relations of his country with the outside world. The citizens belonging to any walk of life could participate in the process of citizen diplomacy. It implies that the citizen diplomats could be students, teachers, sportsmen, artists, tourists, businessmen, writers or poets. The concept of citizen diplomacy motivates the citizens to get engage in the meaningful dialogue with the world to support their own country by securing mutual benefits (Gilboa, 2001). Citizen diplomacy has become such a common practice all over the world that it’s important role in determining the dimension of the world politics could not be denied. The following discussion aims to highlight the important role of citizen diplomacy in the contemporary world politics and affirms the implication and significant role of the concept of citizen diplomacy in to the international political scenario (Phillips, 2005). Citizen Diplomacy and Contemporary World Politics Citizen diplomacy plays important role in shaping the contemporary world politics because it has become now common for the countries to interact at citizen level especially where the governments of the countries do not officially recognize each other. Citizen diplomacy compliments the official or formal diplomacy but in some cases it could also challenge the official diplomacy by following different tract and strategy. In these cases, the governments of the countries usually ban the track two or citizen diplomacy for the management of their affairs solely through the official foreign policy and formal diplomats (Melissen, 2008). Citizen diplomacy is not very new concept for the world. It was pioneered by a physicist Robert Fuller during 1970s and 1980s. He used to travel Soviet Union with the intention of alleviating the Cold War. After the demise of Russian empire, Fuller continued his efforts and propagated his thoughts all over the globe that the common people could also play defining role in bringing peace to the world politics (Patterson, 2007). In 1981, David Hoffman wrote an article about Fuller and coined the term citizen diplomacy giving a name to the efforts and concept divulged by Fuller through his continuous efforts. Since then citizen diplomacy has widely been recognized as an important tool of securing peace and friendly relationship between the states. Some historians also believe that the term was actually coined by Joe Montville to refer to the private negotiations between the citizens of different countries (Gilboa, 2001). The role of citizen diplomacy in the contemporary world politics could be understood from the perspective that it came to play supportive role in the situations where the official diplomatic communication links between the countries are broken and they are stuck with the negotiation process. The continuation of such situation could lead towards cold war between the involved countries and in such situation the citizen diplomacy works for releasing tension between the states and allow them continuing the interaction using different unofficial channels. The citizen diplomacy has also been given the name of track-two diplomacy that has the potential to normalize the situation and pave the way for conducting first tract of official diplomatic relations between the countries (Marc, 2009). The concept of citizen diplomacy has been expanded over the last few decades because it has gained popularity among different nations of the world. In the era of globalization, the movement of people across the national borders have become more frequent and easy due to which the citizen diplomacy has also become easier to conduct. People belonging to different walks of life are now able to move individual or in group from one country to another in order to convey the message and vision of their country towards certain issues. The world politics is now experiencing a wave of transformation due to the important role being played by the citizen diplomacy at international political scenario (Seib, 2007). Earlier the term citizen diplomacy was used to refer the private negotiations between the students however, as the time passed the concept of citizen diplomacy expanded encompassing wide array of processes like problem solving workshops, art shows and exhibitions, cultural and scientific exchanges and combined sports events (Marc, 2009). These activities are widely arranged between the citizen diplomats of the counties that are engaged in conflicting situations with each other. From this perspective, it could be said that citizen diplomacy provides a way to retain the relationships despite the conflicts at formal and governmental levels. It gives options to the countries to take time for revising their policies and strategies while the relations remain stable or become improved due to the activities of the citizen diplomats (Lima, 2007). The citizen diplomacy is often viewed as multi track diplomacy as well because it paves the way towards several options to bring people together like international funding efforts for any common cause or global problem, public opinion making, awareness and communication programs, international research and development activities, exchange of citizens of different service fields and international business negotiations. These activities promote the relationship of the countries at informal grounds and regardless of government interventions the people become able to interact with each other on different grounds (Mattern, 2006). Citizen diplomacy possesses great value in the contemporary world politics because the citizen diplomats act as symbol of peace and work to avoid worsening of relationship and war between the countries. It results in different unofficial contracts between two countries. These countries act as effective tool to build bridges between the nations, people and countries and foster mutual understanding (Lima, 2007). These contracts help the parties to retain and regain mutual trust and understanding with each other’s view point of certain matters and issues. This non-conventional way of conducing diplomacy is most characterised with positive outcomes however, it is also a fact that sometimes it is also attributes with some aspects and it is also regarded by the political experts that citizen diplomacy is not always beneficial for the countries but it also provide variety of negative effects as well (Seib, 2007). Citizen diplomacy is communication between the citizens or group of citizens having some sort of common interests or platform. This communication results in the creation of intellectual and political climate in the involved countries that could support or reject the on-going political progression between these countries. The citizen diplomacy basically works for creating positive image of one country in front of the citizens of the other one but in some cases this portrayal could also result I generating negative feelings among the people about that country or nation. It implies that it is a serious issue (Cohen, 2004). The citizen diplomacy has been regarded as an effective tool that allows the citizens to work for the improvement of the image of the country in front of the outside world. The citizens have the opportunity to reduce some stereotypical images about their countries and could tell the world about the actual vision of their country that the official diplomats fail to demonstrate in front of the world community. From this perceptive as well the citizen diplomacy appears to be an important means to shaping and managing the relationship of the country at international levels (Osgood and Etheridge, 2000). In the era of globalization the countries are required to be more strategic in their approaches towards the management of relationship with others. the management of foreign affairs have become more complex and challenging task in the recent years and in this critical situation citizen diplomacy has the tendency to help the formal diplomats because it allow the solution of the problems from different perspectives and without getting in to direct negotiations and discussion process the citizen diplomats work for the resolution of the issues that appear to be problem for their countries (Gelder, 2006). The citizen diplomats are example of cultural intelligence because they know how to deal with the people of different cultures and backgrounds in a way that all the people could be led towards a single platform (Copeland, 1996). The recent wave of advanced technology developments also supports the process of citizen diplomacy. The citizens diplomats have been provided with certain new ways of interact with each other. Due to the increased use and popularity of internet based interactive tools like face book, twitter and other social networking websites, it has not become possible for the people to remain engage with the people of different countries in more convenient and comfortable manner. The technology also supports the citizen diplomacy and it depends upon the talent and capabilities of the citizen diplomats that how they can make the best use of the latest technology to compliment the process of interaction with the people of other countries (Mattern, 2006). Along with several benefits of citizen diplomacy it is also a fact that the citizens might not be completely aware of the foreign affairs manner and they could exert their efforts in a direction that is not suitable for their countries and their interest. the common citizen often do not understand the complexities of several issues and rather going deep in understanding the perspective of the government or foreign diplomats they continue their efforts from their own stand point that might be different from the formal diplomats. In such cases rather supporting the formal and official diplomacy the citizen diplomats work for destroying and negatively affecting the foreign affairs of the country (Cohen, 2004). The citizens might also take some condensable actions that could also result in the destruction of the reputation and image of their country because a common citizen could not always supposed to be having complete awareness and realization about the sensitivity of all the matters related with the foreign affair management of their country (Copeland, 1996). Hence, it is unveiled from the above discussion that the citizen diplomacy has evolved an inevitable and important feature of the contemporary world politics. Now the countries could not think about managing their efforts without the support of the citizen diplomats. the awareness about the importance of the citizen diplomacy has also resulted in the creation of certain forums and associations that properly manage the matters of the citizen diplomats and allow them to exert all of their efforts in well organized and plan manner so that their activities could flow in the same direction as required by the international community and their own country. The contemporary world politics is well supported by the citizen diplomacy and one could not think about the complete interaction of the countries at international level by neglecting the role of citizen diplomats because they have proved their critical importance and significance for the international affair management. It is very important for the politicians and citizens all over the work to recognize the importance of citizen diplomacy and use it as a tool of effetely managing their relationship and international affairs. References Cohen, Y., Media Diplomacy: The Foreign Office in the Mass Communications Age Copeland, D., Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations, esp. chapters 10-12 Gelder, Melinda. Meeting the Enemy, Becoming a Friend. Bauu Institute: Dec 2006. Gopin, Marc. To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy. Rowman & Littlefield: June 2009. Gilboa, E, ‘Diplomacy in the Media Age: Three Models of Uses and Effects’ in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2001 Lima, A. F. de, ‘The Role of International Educational Exchanges in Public Diplomacy’, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2007 Mattern, Douglass. Looking for Square Two: Moving from War and Organized Violence to Global Community. Millennial Mind Pub: June 2006. Melissen, J., ‘Options for Public Diplomacy’, keynote speech at the British Council conference ‘Scotland’s Place in the World’, 22nd January 2008, available at: www.clingendael.nl/cdsp/publications/?id=6894 Osgood, K. A. and Etheridge, B. C. (eds), The United States and Public Diplomacy: New Directions in Cultural and International History Patterson, David S. The Search for Negotiated Peace: Women's Activism and Citizen Diplomacy in World War I. Routledge: Dec 2007. Phillips, David L. Unsilencing the Past: Track two Diplomacy and Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation. Berghahn Books: Feb 2005. Seib, P. (ed.), Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting US Foreign Policy Read More