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The Death of Diplomacy, 27 June 2011
Very interesting piece by Roger Cohen in yesterday’s New York Times on the death of diplomacy. It’s because of the ‘unstoppable connectivity’ of mobile phones and the internet. www.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/opinion/24iht-edcohen24.html?_r=1&ref=global. And the charts show how the growth of smart phones, in particular, will accelerate in emerging markets and above all in China.
Here are some excerpts from the article.
‘…there are now over 5 billion handsets in the world, compared to 907 million in 2000. The number of users of the internet has grown in the same period from 361 million to over 2 billion. There are now over 100 million mobile phone users in Pakistan alone, compared to 300,000 a decade ago.
…‘Diplomatic cables have been bypassed by networks that observe no borders and respect no hierarchies’.
…’The distinction between the real and the virtual worlds – one that people over 40 insist on making - is simply non-existent to the 52% of the world’s population that is under 30. They move seamlessly between the two. Any attempt to divide them just seems quaint.
When people live freely online they do not want to live in confinement within their physical borders. That is the first great lesson of the Arab Spring.
…The second great lesson has been that connectivity equals organisation moving at speeds no state apparatus can match.
...The most revolutionary idea of our age is that technology equals empowerment. That empowerment can be used positively or negatively…
Jared Cohen, formerly of the State Department and now heading up Google Ideas wants to ensure that technology is a net positive.
‘…The basic idea is that if you bring together people who understand the tools of our age with people who understand the challenges of our age, the benefits will be large.
It is also clear that diplomats are a very long way behind in understanding how they can build on social networks..
'...At a memorial for Richard Holbrooke in Berlin, the former American ambassador to Germany, John Kornblum, said, “We are coming to a new kind of world. One where networks will be more important than treaties. A new kind of diplomacy will be necessary”.
Defining that new diplomacy is the work of the next decade. Holbrooke is not a bad example. He never stopped looking forward. And he liked to compare diplomacy to jazz – a constant improvisation on a theme always looking for new harmonies’.
I don't think diplomacy is dead, in fact it is more important that ever. We need diplomats to be more in touch with how people are living and somehow balance the need to be agile with the need to reflect.
But if people are always connected, listen to what they say to each other, and what they say is what people hear, then maybe EM Forster will be right - 'Only Connect'.
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2011-07-05 17:13 Perkins19Michele