Artwork: Circles Kandinsky
Global Diplomacy – Diplomacy in the Modern World
by University of London & SOAS University of London
https://www.coursera.org/learn/global-diplomacy/home/welcome
Stimulates you to think.....
Week 2 Forum discussion I started up ended up with some good interactive threads of thoughts.... My starting point:
Can we ever be successful with diplomacy where there are despotic leaders hell bent on achieving their agenda? How can we stop the pain of their regimes as we see countless deaths and destroyed lives, families and infrastructure?N.I. responded with:
Now we have Mr Trump that is proving now to be a challenge to diplomacy? So can we ever be successful where someone is so fixed on their ideology and opinions, with this try to justify their actions with the fact they were democratically voted in with that ideology and opinion.... so have the right to their actions...?
However despotic or stubborn Trump may be, he will be pressured to find a middle ground between his strong protectionist stance and the ideology of others. For instance, the checks and balances in the U.S regime allows for other forces such as congress to put a check on Trump. Nevertheless, Trump’s ideology is not all that extreme; It's just his way of conveying his message that makes it sound ludacris.My response:
you have used a good word - stubborn and this could be applied to all depots too ... in that they have so tightly cocooned themselves in the world they see and wish others to be part of... with this is a stubbornness to not see anything else but self and self ideology. An ideology that is protecting self interests. Then does diplomacy involve the breaking free from this cocoon of delusion... for the benefit of all citizens in the nation to find their liberty and creative force within ...to empower and better their communities. This of course is seen by the deluded despots as a threat to their self imposed power as it disseminates power and decisions to others and allows others to have free thinking.
With this is a need for respect... the cocoon delusion created by the stubborn despots fails to reach out of the cocoon and see respect for others... yet somehow demands respect even in some regimes forceful respect of themselves....
I always worry when we see despotic leaders images all over town and in bureaucratic offices.... it is a major sign of deluded ego.... and most certainly not putting citizens first.. rather a form of control and reminder to perform to the regime.
Whilst we have not seen this yet with Mr T he sure is ensuring his image is projected around the globe with all the executive orders hype there has been in what is not yet the first month of the job!!
By mega contrast I am watching Justin Trudeau and his style of leadership which is full of respect for others and working together as one nation. Valuing all in the nation with all that each has to offer and with this is a natural evolution value of his leadership.
More of my responses as the thread builds....
great responses thanks.. Was good to see diplomacy in action yesterday with Trudeau and his visit to Washington.
I am beginning to see what is happening on the diplomacy stage... it is like the backdrop is always the country and its assets and the trade deals.... so that is where the diplomacy is aimed. So no matter the front stage player it is the ability to reach round through up or down that player to maintain the country to country link ....
But I continue to be impressed with Trudeau and his style - of course the switching in and out of French and English is fascinating....like his stance on Canada and its emphasis on community first.....
By the way folks what has happened to Mr Trumps phobia of slopes? Did you notice with the Japanese visit and the Canadian visit and the walk down that famous holding hands with Mrs May to steady himself slope- there seems to be no reach out to the male leaders?? I do not think Mrs May had the healing touch to cure him..! We must see what happens with Angela Merkel's visit on that walk down the slope....
All the world's a stage...
AND,
Georgina you bring in valid points and illustrate how is impossible to isolate from the rest of the world... and put America first when the country is composed of people from around the world. How companies invest in people skills that other countries may excel in. Same with Brexit not only no man is an island but no country is an island that can totally survive alone... and really not a modern day shift in populations and workforce with our modern transport. Seems we have been doing this since we existed on the planet Earth. of course through history we have had surges in one group building Empires and oppressing others... or using others.... Great story told to me by one of my Syrian refugees as he found out of love story in the Ancient Roman Empire. We Britons were taken as slaves and there was a slave from near Newcastle that was taken to Syria ... Regina was her name... where upon a Syrian Merchant fell in love with her and bought her out of slavery. They became very wealthy.. but they both settled in the North of England :-) sure he did not marry her just for the UK visa as were not fully united as such then...... there is an ancient plague to their relationship..
FURTHER
Bhanhan see what you saying on communication being key. But can diplomacy truly be a one way street with only one side goals being acknowledge and achieved.....as you suggest. The same sentence carrying Fascist and Diplomacy I find challenging but on researching in academic papers some have tried to put the two together. My eyes and perception see that Fascism is too restrictive to allow any degrees of freedom in negotiations to permit diplomacy. Surely there must be two or more sides degrees of freedom with diplomacy that should have harmony peace and no pain as the outcome. I am an older student and was not around in 1930s but my parents were and I remember them telling me of all the pain, fear and anguish from the restrictive indoctrinated oppressive regimes that were present in the world then. The pain and suffering and deaths and crimes against humanity surely means that where there is such evil no diplomacy can exist. For to question and to try to reshape is seen as an outright threat to the regime and treated with paranoia sadistic attack on those that try to get their voices heard to challenge this. How do we get through this without war and conflict and more pain and suffering. So strange in all of us there is Light and Dark and I guess diplomacy is to try to reach into the light of a person or group..... I met someone in Munich that knew Hitler personally and she was saying he was a nice guy to know...!! She even showed me is First Aid Certificate on display in the Red Cross HQ in Munich... so somewhere in him was some compassion of sorts yet the horrors of what he ordered and did are to this day deeply sickening...Do not know if you are energies sensitive but Fascism carries a dark heavy energy of violence and oppression..... Thank goodness we have beauty in the world to buffer this and reminds us of the light of love and care and compassion for all... I have biologically little time on this Earthly plane but I hope you younger generations can find peace and harmony and be a global family working together for the good of all..... so many mistakes we as a species keep making....and creating man made ego driven pain that never needs to be....
It all makes us think and question and try to understand.... Mind is part of ego and is full of self and perceptions on the world... Mine as yours is the product of all we have been through and seen and experienced and felt.... Felt then links us to heart and as we link in our emotions and feelings with this comes empathy and trying to see through the eyes of empathy care and compassion. So we are complex beings in a complex world that our complexity makes.....
But all the time there is a major link that buffers the darkness we can make...... The light and love of that that holds everything together.
Strange when you think and see and go into the atomic structure of all... each proton, neutron and electron is in fact nothingness... packets of energy ... and that energy field all this planet and its clustered form..... makes for some interesting dynamics...... we are all interconnected with this energy this nothingness.... lool now there is a thought for a Saturday night :-)
