China- the ultimate real laboratory?

Environmental diplomacy has proven that it is here to stay. It is an uber-relevant issue that concerns every human being on this planet. It is said that President Obama discusses the issue of climate change with every political leader that he meets. The G-8 summit is not solid without an agenda item on the threats against our environment. However, many green activists argue that environmental diplomacy is a cause without concern (see http://www.aicgs.org/documents/environmentaldiplomacy.pdf).

I found an interesting journal discussing two processes of globalisation taking place at the sae time.

1. The process of economic globalisation that is induced by the worlds industrial corporations
2. The process of ecological globalisation pushed by world’s environmentalists (Ibid)

The first point is driven by the northern markets and those sources are now drained. This has subsequently put us in a position were we are desperate to find new markets.
The second point pushes states, NGOs, MNCs and green activists to find competitive advantages in large scales. This has been made possible by the explosive growth of technology.

At the same time, ecological globalisation is being pushed by the fact one’s production and consumption have escalated to the stage where what one does in one country can reap severe repercussions for someone in a neighbouring country.

China is dominating trade and has become a pivotal player to climate change. Innovation is key and Chinas increasing demand for energy is growing at a faster speed than ever before whilst the US worries those greenhouse gas regulations will stand in the way of an already fragile economic growth.
New and innovative clean technology is building great hope for future low-carbon growth but most has yet to reach the public and once they do that introduces a new task of making them lucrative in order for them to drive down costs. This results in them doing very little to compete with traditional fossil fuels.
Chinas unprecedented domestic market provides the basis in which they could be the ultimate real world laboratory for experiments in clean energy innovation with potential winning ideas reproduced on a scale large enough to drive down costs worldwide (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-firger/hus-washington-visit-and-_b_809134.html).

Now to bring it back to diplomacy, it is the responsibility of worldwide diplomats to work as pressure groups to further encourage China to take their responsibility serious. There are discussions regarding potential sanctions if China does not fully engage in its potential to help fight climate change.



Also see: http://www.ametsoc.org/atmospolicy/documents/EnvironmentandStatecraftbarrettJune9th.pdf

Diplomacy for me Today

The first association my mind makes when it hears the word 'diplomacy' today is- the art of negotiations. The ability to achieve high-stake goals with an evidence based approach to the matter by a charismatic and confident person or group. A country is represented by multiple entities; its flag, currency, culture, sitting government, national anthem and sport etc. But individuals residing outside state boundaries carry a notion of representation- whether they want to or not. The power of the individual has been acknowledged since the beginning of civilisation and hence the state desire for diplomats.
They are individuals just like you and me but with skills of persuasion and expertise. That I believe has not and will not change. However, the way they conduct their business, the means they adopt to chief their goals has changed. This I believe is a natural transition as the state threats have changed. With the end of the Cold War the world saw a significant alteration in security threats, with phenomenas such as state-sponsored terrorism and terrorist franchise, we saw the phenomena that is globalisation introduce new depths of interdependence and the explosive emergence of the internet that made the impossible possible and that brought the far near and we saw free trade zones.
With this said the transformation of diplomatic conduct from 'old' to 'new' I believe was called for. The previously stated phenomenas has made it possible for the average Joe to stay up-to-date with the latest international/national news and this has breeded a generation of people that want to be involved, that want to be consulted and that oppose secrecy. This generation has with the help of the internet and the media turned itself into a governmental pressure group and a force to be reckoned with- the Wikileaks showed us that.

The significant increase of summits and international forums come as an answer to the publics demand to remain in the light of whats is going on politically and whether or not the real decisions are being made in the public eye or not I believe is irrelevant- the fact that they exist is the point. Heads of State and their respective governments are making huge efforts and spending a lot of resources to maintain the illusion of public involvement. This does however not change the fact that secrecy and private portals remain at the core of decision making and this I believe will not change.

My conclusion

Looking back to my first impression on what was my understanding of the title “Diplomacy”, I had a little to say because my knowledge of the subject was very narrow and limited to the general idea of the official representation between countries or the government face of one country in another country. However, going through the module topics I started to have a bigger view on the role of diplomacy in world politics and the changes that occurred to this practice over the time. My knowledge of the subject started to develop from the first topic we tackled and with it my understanding of the difference between old and new ways of conducting Diplomacy, from the old Bilateral residential representation which was conducted in absolute secrecy to the new practices like the Multilateral and the Conference diplomacy which they started to be an important practice of Diplomacy only after the World War One with the creation of the League of Nations. Trade and environmental diplomacy also became vital to the security and stability of the nations. Due to the complexity of trade and environmental negotiations between states and the impact of the different philosophical perspectives that are connected to them, it became imperative at the high level of the international relations to set up new world organisations to control and to regulate both issues especially after the claims about the economical disagreement between Europeans was the cause that led to the start of the First World War. Also one of the big debates we are witnessing at the present time about who to blame for the deterioration of the world environment, also what have to be done to tackle the environmental issues of development. The Public diplomacy is another new practice of Diplomacy, there is different views on this practice as some groups claim that public diplomacy is a ‘propaganda campaign’ by states, they spread lies in order to obtain beneficial gains like the promotion of the state image abroad. other groups disagree with the ‘conspiracy theory’ behind the propaganda claim and have a different view on how public diplomacy is conducted and what is aiming to achieve, moreover, this group see the practice as publicising cultural, economical, historical, and political gains of one state abroad.
Not only I learnt how the methods in the practice are highly controversial, like the secrecy around the negotiations, the lobbying in the corridors, and the propaganda view on some of the practice, but also I learnt how positively Diplomacy evolved in many ways. The amazing speed of technological advances and the breakthrough in the different fields especially of transportation, communications, the media, and many others led to big changes in the conduct of Diplomacy. For example the so cold ‘shuttle Diplomacy’ in which high officials travel from a capital to another in very short period and uses their planes as their offices like with US Force one plane which have an office equipped with the best communication technologies and have everything the president needs from very comfortable bedroom and bathroom to on plane cooker serving him freshly cooked meals, this is to help the president or his foreign minister to deal with the long spells of Diplomatic missions abroad. Also I have to mention the use of new technological devices to communicate between states like the electronic mails and the voice and image speeches like the one made by the president Obama to the Iranian people which was released on the Internet to be easily accessed by the broadest Iranian audiences.
Although all the changes in the conduct of Diplomacy from the ‘Old’ to the ‘New’ were important, however, Diplomacy was affected also by the international political developments like the economical integration areas like the EU and its innovative practice of diplomacy, as the newly created European foreign minister led by Baroness Catherine Ashton which is the first European foreign minister and represented 27 European countries in Haiti after the earthquake disaster that happened in that Caribbean island last year. Another important political development occurred and is growing within the Diplomacy practice. It is the rise of number and importance of non- state actors in the international relations field. Not only their interaction with governments and world organisations led to many changes in the international political and economical system and laid the platforms to solve many issues like environmental summits, but also they forced rich countries to look and poorer countries and help to elevate world poverty in their meeting like the (G8).
To conclude, I must say that my knowledge of the subject has broaden and became wider, also I could see and read clearer than before in the foreign political approach of states and what aspects of Diplomatic are used during conflicts or negotiations.