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Loading... Diplomacy and Global Governance:by Thomas Nowotny
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Traditional diplomacy is based on the notion of competing nation-states, each attempting to maximize its autonomy and independence. This notion is at odds with today's world in which even mighty states are enmeshed in a web of interdependence. Much of the world's economy, information, industry, and culture have become global. Given these massive changes, argues Thomas Nowotny, much of traditional diplomacy has become redundant and sometimes counterproductive. Notwithstanding worldwide interdependence, states still anchor this complex global system. In a timelier version of their craft, diplomats retain an important function in safeguarding and shaping that worldwide interdependence. They are trained to transform differences into consensus and to navigate zones of conflict. But to do so effectively, and to meet today's challenges, they will have to adjust their ways and institutions. Nowotny bases his arguments on his unique experiences in internal organizational politics and in bilateral and multilateral international diplomacy, as well as on his theoretical reflections as an academic. His work aims to merge lessons from these distinct spheres into one comprehensive whole, intertwining practice and theory. To affect outcomes one, thus, has to deal with practice and theory at the same time. This is what Novotny aims to achieve, and he succeeds admirably. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)327.2Social sciences Political Science International Relations DiplomacyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3)
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Wikipedia in English
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Style: Not nearly as obscure as one would expect. Interesting to see that even a life-long acquaintance with English does not give native fluency; useful if you want to see what English-as-a-second-language looks like in print.
NOTES:
p. 167: On how diplomats might be engaged in altering misleading stereotypical images of their country, and why it is ineffective except in moments of fluidity, under pressure of necessity or inevitability, with the co-operation of the target country. Read the whole page.
Austrian ambassador Trauttmansdorff: "Diplomacy is the art of walking through open doors; it is not the art of breaking down closed doors."
p. 170: On how two diplomats, Karen Hughes of US and Kurt Waldheim of Austria, failed to sway public sentiment in their favor. Lesson is that neither addressed the underlying causes of the opposition and hostility toward them, "being incapable of seeing things also from the perspective of those they tried to convince...They lacked what diplomats should and could add (to pr campaigns) as part of their professional skills. This is the capacity to listen; the readiness to see the world also through the eyes of others; the facility of using the views and interest of these others so as to promote one's own aims."
p. 171-172: "The Norwegian political scientist I. Newmann provides an example for difficulties that ensue when diplomats stick to their own rules of communication even when the audience so addressed is not the community of other diplomats but an interested outside group of the public in general." --- "Politicians know how to address an audience and how to use its interests and emotions. Writers of editorials know who to deliver and opinion in a way that is enlightening to readers of newspapers. Many diplomats lack that know-how."
Other pages to note (2-page spread):
186, 192, 194, 200, 204, 209, 231, 246, 250, 254, 256, 268, 270, 278, 282, 284, 288, 292. (