New Concepts in Cultural Diplomacy
How can we use cultural diplomacy as a tool to attain objectives of foreign diplomacy
1. Culture has been defined in many ways. As Cluckholm (1951) argues culture includes systematic methods of thinking, feeling and reacting. Culture is acquired and conveyed through symbols. It comprises certain achievements of human groups, including figurative products. The focus on product maybe a result of agriculture and culture’s shared root in Latin. But based on the literature of management and Gerrt Hofstede’s idea we can define culture as “the collective programming of mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another”. Culture comprises the system of values.
Values belong to individuals or groups. Every value is a tendency to prioritize something over another. Since values are shaped at the early stages of life they are not necessarily rational. A person can even believe in contradictory values, like liberty and equality. So it can be said that culture at first relates to individuals and then societies.
2. Public policymaking means decisions and policies made by various resources of public domain including the parliament, the government and the judiciary that safeguard the public interests of the society. Generally speaking, government is a legal institution for public policymaking and fulfills this responsibility through various means including laws, regulations and rules. One of the most important issues in state policymaking is differentiation between what the governments intend to do and what it has really done. This means what they have not done and where they have been inactive is also considered important. The other point is that in state policymaking the role of informal players including public opinion and pressure groups must be also taken into consideration. Third is that state policymaking is not restricted to laws, state decrees and regulations.
From the point of view of organizational process, public policies are the result of the practices of different institutions in the public domain. Institutions that nowadays are present in our daily life are the policymakers of our age that relying on their expert and legal power shape and direct the public policies. The organizational structure of the country, way of communication and the extent of authority of different units each influence the procedure of public policymaking in a way or other.
3. In essence, foreign diplomacy concerns measures of a state in foreign environment and circumstances. Foreign diplomacy is a process which includes clear objectives, certain external elements related to those objectives, ability of the country to achieve desired goals, development of a fruitful strategy, implementation, assessment, and control of that strategy. With this regard, diplomacy can be defined as a set of activities that are enforced by decision makers of a country while facing other countries or international institutions, to achieve what is called the country’s national interests. The global order, relations among countries and rise of new international powers other than countries, has reached to a level incomparable with a few decades ago. Both foreign diplomacy and its constituents have gained much more importance. Action, reaction and interaction among states have significantly increased. At the early years of the third millennium survival is not possible for any political unit without having ties with other countries. Diplomacy is the vehicle of foreign diplomacy.
4. Of the definitive elements of a democratic society, one is degree of people’s participation in the policy-making process. The greater this participation, the higher the possibility that institutions of the society encounter conflicting demands of people who different interests have divided apart. Foreign diplomacy of a country is the outcome of an intricate and multifaceted decision-making process in which several governmental and non-governmental institutions are involved and each pursue a different goal. When we approach the decision-making phase this variation in goals results in indecision or inconsistent behaviors by units involved in foreign diplomacy. Inconsistency in enforcing the foreign policies has serious consequences that lead to a decrease in effectiveness and credibility of a country in global scene. This becomes more conspicuous when incompatible goals are pursued simultaneously. For example we want to have full commercial cooperation with a country and meanwhile we protest violation of human rights in that country. The art of diplomacy is manifested in these occasions; how to decide, and how to carry out decisions which result in optimum achievement of national interests.
5. In her "The Anatomy of Revolution", Brinton argues that just as holy book that are universal religious models, revolutions are universal in their goals and ideals. Spreading the revolution as one of the ideological principles of the Islamic revolution of Iran has been a main objective of the Iran’s foreign diplomacy in the post-revolution era. In fact, Iranian leaders believed that the country bears the mission of promoting its message across the world. To realize this mission Iran followed two objectives:
· Directing nations towards an understanding of their destiny and their region,
· Attempts to establish a united Islamic society (ummah), so that Islam serves its crucial role in construction of a society.
On the one hand, the Islamic Revolution focused on denial of imperialistic relations, denial of the supremacy of superpowers, supporting oppressed nations, spread of revolution, and persistence on Islamic principles. But on the other hand, such mentalities would interfere with many diplomatic norms and notions. Naturally in the first decade after the revolution during which revolutionary and ideological beliefs had a greater role, this paradox had become more glaring.
In fact, this paradox is the problem with all revolutions and a revolution is naturally at odds with the established relations of the international system. It attempts to transform this system and the task of diplomacy is peaceful transfer of this revolutionary tendency from inside to the region and the world.
6. foreign diplomacy of Iran can be active in the following fields:
- informing the world about the culture and civilization of Iran as one the world’s greatest civilizations;
- introducing a pure image of Islamic thought based on Islamic values;
- creating an image of the integration of Iranian culture and Islamic thought, which is usually manifested through Shiite doctrines;
- Promoting traditions, history, historical monuments, subcultures, and national culture of Iranians to people of other countries.
7. When we discuss cultural diplomacy, inevitably our mind goes to those who are supposed to convey our cultural message. The major responsibility in cultural diplomacy is supposed to be undertaken by diplomats. They can be the bridge between their own country and the country they are sent to. Common people may fall into mistakes when identifying cultural differences of others, since behavior common for showing respect in a society, may be insulting in another. In every country the society has its own mentality, feelings, and practices that can be substantially different from others, since their socialization has been different. The quality of handling power, facing ambiguities, relations inside the family, consequences of social relations, attitude towards gender etc. differ in each society.
It’s the duty of a cultural diplomat to discover the prevailing culture of the country where he’s going to serve. Then, he must identifythe cultural differences between Iran and that county, and finally to attain the optimum for the national interests of the county, he must try to approach these concepts and establish links between them and social concepts of Iran.
8. Cultural diplomats must be careful about their behavior and their words more than those serving inside the country. The audiences of domestic diplomats are inside the country and more or less have the same culture and interpret within the frame of Iranian culture. But outside the country, the audiences of Iran’s cultural representative are people with different characteristics. So we must be very meticulous in order to convey our message and meanwhile prevent an undesirable encounter with their culture.
9. We must be careful so that diplomats do not become alienated from our culture. Due to close contact with other cultures, if we don’t be prepared for this, it can affect the diplomats in many ways. Therefore, to minimize the likely losses, all countries plan for sustained contact of the diplomat with his subject country. Annual seminars, attending in-service training courses and limiting diplomats’ term of service are all to guarantee the cultural and political well-being of diplomats.