BLOGS – THE NEW DIPLOMACY?
By Paul Reynolds
Story from BBC NEWS:
africa/6083632.stm
Published: 2006/10/25 17:57:05 GMT
The attack on the government of Sudan by the UN’s envoy Jan Pronk
has perhaps pointed the way to a new kind of direct diplomacy –
the diplomat’s blog.
Mr Pronk was expelled from Sudan after government anger at comments
he made on his personal website. The government accused him of
"psychological warfare" after he wrote that government forces had
suffered two defeats in Darfur and that it had broken Security
Council resolutions.
The former Dutch cabinet minister is no stranger to controversy but
his use of the internet to publicise his views is new and daring in
diplomacy, which traditionally favours discretion.
His blog was startlingly detailed, the kind of information that is
normally sent back, encoded, only to national capitals. Sometimes in a
one-on-one talk, a journalist can get something similar from a lively
envoy, but to get it in the raw on the internet is an innovation.
For example, Mr Pronk wrote of Darfur: "The morale in the government
army in North Darfur has gone down. Some generals have been sacked;
soldiers have refused to fight… Security Council resolutions which
forbid armed mobilisation are being violated."
He is given to public pronouncements on foreign policy. He once
called for an "Iraq-style" intervention in Bosnia (Iraq-style as in
the 1991 war to expel Iraq from Kuwait) long before the outside world
took action.
When the Serbs massacred Bosnian Muslims following the fall of
Srebrenica, he was a cabinet minister. He immediately and publicly
accused the Serbs of genocide. He then criticised the performance of
the Dutch troops who were supposed to defend the town and resigned
himself, followed by the whole government the next day.
Uzbek example
Another turbulent diplomat who would have loved a blog when he was
trying to get his message over was Craig Murray, the British ambassador
to Uzbekistan between 2002 and 2004. He eventually fell out with the
Foreign Office over his public criticism of the Uzbek government’s
human rights record.
You should be able to say more of what you really think – you can’t
have a cocktail party relationship with a fascist regime Craig Murray
Former UK ambassador in Uzbekistan He is now a private citizen but
still campaigns and uses a blog to do so.
"I would have loved a blog when I was an ambassador, but they were
not really invented then and I doubt even now if the Foreign Office
knows what they are," he told me.
"I did get permission for a speech I made making my views public but
I was told that approval had been given at too low a level, so I got
into trouble.
"A diplomat’s blog is a great idea. You should be able to say more of
what you really think. You can’t have a cocktail party relationship
with a fascist regime."
Such diplomats break the traditional mould. I know that Mr Murray’s
actions upset many of his colleagues who feel that vigorous reporting
should be confined to private messages back to base. It is then up
to governments to act.
Update: I have had two e-mails pointing me to a blog by the British
ambassador to Tunisia Alan Goulty! So the Foreign Office does know
what a blog is.
One of the e-mails was from Luke Cholerton-Bozier, a consultant for the
British Council and the embassy at the time of the World Information
Summit in Tunisia. He says that it was his idea and he mentioned it
to an embassy official. The blog is the result.
It is a mixture of politics and diplomatic life – and nothing
controversial. The ambassador remarks on the Middle East peace process
as well as issues like animal welfare. He invites comments which is a
good part of any blog, leading in one posting to his rueful remark:
"A correspondent in Gabes chides me for paying more attention to
animal welfare in La Marsa than to poor people in the South. " He adds:
"of course, both need help."
But what happens when, as in Mr Pronk’s case, the diplomat feels that
nobody is listening on a matter of great importance?
Armenian agony
There was a famous case during World War I when the US ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, started reporting his conclusion
that Armenians were the subject of genocide by the Turks.
"It appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress
under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion," he wrote to the
State Department.
His cables to Washington did not have much effect so he began to talk
to the New York Times and other papers.
The modern equivalent might be to set up a personal website and talk
directly to the world instead of to journalists.
Vibbi’s verbosity
There was, on the other hand, the example of the young Croatian
diplomat which governments are keen to avoid.
Known online as "Vibbi," 25 year old Vibor Kalodjera blogged from
Washington during the 2004 presidential campaign. He dismissed the
Democratic candidate John Kerry as "no better" than George Bush,
whom he in turn accused of being interested "in oil only".
His opinion of diplomatic life in general came through when he
commented on his attendance at a conference. "What a privilege! I’d
rather have been at a concert."
"Vibbi" was suspended.
One example of a current diplomat’s blog I came across was one run
by the Syrian ambassador in Washington Imad Moustapha.
His site is not exactly like Mr Pronk’s. It has a picture of the
ambassador sitting on a sofa and there is plenty of jolly talk about
how wonderful Syria is. Perhaps the ambassador has to resort to this
method of communication because he has little contact with the State
Department these days. Syria is currently still part of the "axis
of evil".
At least he tries. A quick inspection suggests that most embassy
websites are woefully dull.
Embassy efforts
The British embassy site in Dublin, for example, where you might
think that an informal approach would be appreciated, looks as if it
has been downloaded from a 1950s pamphlet. There is no personal word
from the ambassador, just a long CV and a passport-style photo.
Yet one might have thought that his travels around Ireland would
produce an interesting commentary on the state of relations with
Britain’s important neighbour.
On the other hand, the Irish Embassy’s website in London is not much
better and has misspelt the word "contact".
The US embassy in London, whose ambassador Mr Holmes Tuttle is not,
despite his status, one of the more visible diplomats in London,
does not reveal much on its website about his activities. There are
some pictures of the envoy in full white tie and tail, a garb somewhat
distant from that of most Londoners.
The internet does seem to be a foreign thing to most diplomats.