With all the talk of the return of public diplomacy, I can't help but reminisce over the motivation to bring it back and the approach and pysche that is stimulating efforts of bridging the 'cultural divide'. Let us begin by considering a prominent aspect of the elusive realm of culture: religious culture.
I don't intend to delve into the one religion being over-discussed in many forums - academic, professional and freelance alike - Islam. Instead, I would like to point towards a fascinating and surprising (*yaah.. right*) similarity between the religious cultures of Islam and Christianity.
There are channels, specifically of the philosophical traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, that allege Muslim and Christian populations to have one thing consistently in common: a culture of conversion. Whether this is due to their histories of conquest and colonization, or due to their respective surrounding and internal temporal politics, I raise the point here to draw a connection between this allegation and the present rhetoric of the 'cultural divide' (eg. Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations') so often referred to in discussions concerning terrorism, anti-Americanism, etc etc. and ‘what to do about it’.
With missionary crosses hanging above broken blackboards in villages of Africa on the one hand, and children obediently swaying back and forth as they recite the Qur'an in (non-terrorist) madrassahs (not having much understanding of what they read since they sometimes know not Arabic, the language of the Qur'an), I beg to ask: Do these religions, Christianity, (primarily) associated with the West, and Islam, (primarily) associated with the East, really have very little in common? A study of past and present conditions in 'developing' (again...*yaah right*) regions of the world reveals otherwise. Indeed, whether we explore the culture of Worship (religion), the culture of Commerce (corporatism, consumerism, etc), or the culture of Ideological Revolt against years of perceived exploitation ('Terrorism'), there is definitely a culture of conversion - 'they need to know 'the truth about us'. What really is the truth…about us? About them? Conversion: one's own truth is the only truth.
With such a meta-culture ('conversion') characterizing almost all of human history and human interaction, it is not hard to see why entities of Power are concerned with 'winning the hearts and minds' of antagonistic ('ignorant') populations. With so many errors in the philosophy behind US public diplomacy (winning --> competition; hearts and minds--> offshoot of psy-ops; misunderstanding present world demographic movements and composition), how can all the money being spent by the US military to conduct its own public diplomacy really result in the outcomes so desired? Before trying to convey one's point of view in as many ways as possible (therefore coming off as desperate and, more importantly, having vested interests), one must understand who one is trying to speak to. What is their culture? Historical culture, constructed national culture, regional/tribal culture, postcolonial culture, institutional culture, political culture..... one must have an understanding of how 'they' came to be what.... (*please edit*)....who....they are now. Once one has achieved a 'better' (one will never have a 'complete') understanding of such aspects, one will be able to convey one's message better. In fact, one might be perceptive enough to pick up active and reactive elements in 'their' cultures, and therefore adjust (even revamp hopefully) not only one's strategy and tactics of interaction, but one's psyche and approach behind such efforts.
Populations we aim to relate to....are not ignorant. Space-time compression and democratization of much (not all, of course) information has led to the sophisticated (and sometimes distorted) development of all cultures. Instead of trying to convert them, we need to understand them....and maybe even ourselves (our own demographics and new cultures)....first. Maybe the desperate need for huge amounts of monetary, technology, personnel (and ammunition) dedication to control those that ‘hate’ (*edit*)…. disrespect or do not respect….us.....might automatically decrease on its own.
Competence instead of Conversion: the key to effectively executing....(wrong again... see? Vocab people!)....understanding....soft power and hard power, and therefore, understanding what it means to harness truly smart power.
Comments (1)
I agree with this phrasing, competence vs. conversion. This is a problem not only between "Big C" cultuers but within the U.S. as well. The "culture wars" have emerged because people from different geographic, institutional and personal backgrounds have made it their mission to get other people to accept their worldview wholesale.
This is not just something done by Christians. Yes, they evangelize, but that is to be expected based on their beliefs. More troubling to me is the new, secular insistence that people toe the line on ideology. That, for example, Americans ought to "believe" in evolution, and that there is something "wrong" if they don't. The Christian right correctly sees such intentions as efforts to indoctrinate their children, which is why they resist.
The fundamental philosophy of secularity and the governmental institutions and processes it set forth was the separation of belief from policy, frequently described as the separation of church and state. This is not just a domestic ideal -- it is this mentality that lead to the creation of the U.N., the ICC etc.
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January 28, 2007 12:24 PM
Posted on January 28, 2007 12:24