Citizen Diplomacy

When it comes to the diplomacy, it is fascinating to see there are wide range of diplomatic relations evolved during the centuries of human relations, engaging with each other through political, social or even connecting cultures and communities through conversations, sharing their sense of identity and traditions making friendships. The idea of Citizen Diplomacy or perhaps diplomacy of people is regarded as a political concept of people or communities coming together, engaging with each other or simply representing their countries, cultures or traditions. (U.S Centre for Citizen diplomacy:2012)

The idea of people’s diplomacy is not new, but in fact it pretty much existed and practised during the ancient times when people had to travel from one city to another for various purposes such as business and so on. However, in the modern world, citizen diplomacy occurs when there is no any official engagement is needed or desired. It is argued that citizen diplomacy is ideal for states who do not have any political ties, but have got some great and friendly cultural or historical ties with each other, so therefore it could be argued that through people’s diplomatic attachments, it could be a good way to engage in statecraft, building more closer ties. (McDonald:2003)

Dawson,A. 2011, The role of Citizen Diplomacy India-Pakistan Relation. [Online Image] Available at: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org  Accessed on 15 April 2012

As I mentioned, citizen diplomacy can take various forms and shapes; The picture above shows Citizens from India and Pakistan standing on the same spot and waving their flags despite the decades-long conflict between them. It can truely be argued that citizen diplomacy has the potential to counter a negative way of thinking about each other through people to people interaction. Moreover, students, regional ambassadors , businessmen and women, tourists, teachers, athletes and other ordinary people who have got something sense of attachment to the idea of sharing their values, representing their traditions and so on for sake of a better world could all be regarded as the most influential layers of the societies. For instance, during the cold war the famous scientist Robert W. Foller constantly travelled to the USSR of the time to engage with the people as a people’s representative rather than representing a political channel, to up ease the tensions between the people of two countries. Or during the Nawroz celebrations, peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and other central Asian countries come together and share their sense of culture and identity through food, music and so on. Although for instance in governmental level some of these named countries are not really good and do not have great political and diplomatic relations.

Bibliography:

• US Centre for Citizen Diplomacy.(2012)  http://uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org/pages/what-is-citizen-diplomacy/ [online] Accessed 12^thApril ,2012    
• John W. McDonald, (2003) Citizen Diplomacy, http://www.mum.edu/pdf_msvs/v05/mcdonald.pdf [online] Accessed 12^thApril ,2012