No foreign policy, no matter how ingenious, has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of few and carried in the hearts of none.
The relations between nations are not solely based on a play of politics and economics. It certainly is the integration of culture and the structural elements that exist in the countries which brings best of the cords between the nations.
To sum up, Diplomacy at its best must be well constructed to include critical thought process. It can not be oblivious of the economics of our society nor the political links that bind us as a world. High level discussions with inclusion of Global Governance, Cultural Homogenization must extend full respect to the unique cultural traditions of each nation. Only then can we bring the world pacing towards a healthy development and prove Thomas Friedman’s analysis of his groundbreaking book, The World Is Flat.
Globalization, primarily in the early 21st century has leveled our global playing field as it relates to commerce–as Friedman states. The playing field among industrial and emerging market countries is leveling. Whether a large corporation, a small company, or an individual solo entrepreneur, we are fast becoming participants of the larger global supply chain extending across borders and oceans. Friedman also argues that in regards to jobs, the increased accessibility of technology plays a major role in equalizing the playing field. No longer is there a need to rely on hierarchical structures to access information. He regards the “convergence of 10 major political events, innovations and companies” that helped flatten the world. These include: Fall of the Berlin Wall, Internet, workflow software, uploading, outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining, insourcing, informing and the wire connectivity of our digitized world.
The widely held notion that the pessimists are usually correct, while the optimists are usually wrong, can be argued–since all great changes in our world have been accomplished by the optimists. Thus, as global citizens we have no other choice but to stand as optimists. Positivity is the best way to sustainable success.
And as global citizens of a global community, we must all strive to establish and secure peace as the ruling principle that guides us in our lives and in our diplomatic world. This can be the guiding, collective survival not just for one country, but for our world. This is only possible if we join forces, globally, to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and hunger.
Placing Circularity Of Education At The Heart of Modern Diplomacy
Education is the most powerful weapon for peace. Education is the third eye of a child.
Education flattens the playing field across socio-economic status. Focusing on the 3E formula of “Enable, Educate and Empower” the most disadvantaged can be empowered. The indigenous communities can be empowered with knowledge while they preserve the unique cultural heritage and traditions of tribal communities.
The transformative powers of education are a personal part of my own journey from abject poverty to becoming a member of the parliament. When poverty creates illiteracy, literacy can eradicate poverty. By providing free education to millions of disadvantaged children, our world can reap the benefits of the transformative powers of education. It can empower individuals to build–not destroy.
World Peace can be attainable if we empower peaceful and peace-loving individuals. But one person can’t be the sea-change. They must empower, inspire and congregate like-minded individuals. We need educationists who believe in the collective power of education for all and set a socio-cultural itinerary for holistic social reform and transformation.
Working in collaboration, change-makers can strengthen the global mission. Those who have achieved a platform for sharing thoughts, can gain a level of strength, power, and collectively give back to the society. Imagine if the art of giving can become the ethos of everyone’s life. In being obliged, not ungrateful, we can all work together as a global force to achieve world peace.
Globalization has connected all parts of the world, expanding the international cultural, economic, and political activities. As with everything else, globalization has advantages and disadvantages of economic, social, political, and cultural impacts. While in a country like India, with 65% rural population, globalization was impossible to decipher, the onset of Covid-19 pandemic has equalized and flattened awareness that a virus from “wet market” in Wuhan, China, can affect 202 countries. Reaching India’s borders, it affected nearly 900,000 in 90 days, killing over 44,000 victims–the speed of which proves our highly compact and globalized world.
The pandemic has also united policymakers and experts to work collaboratively. The pandemic’s destructive repercussions for corporations and businesses have proven the economic interdependence supported by cross-border supply chains. Many companies, dependent on China have seen the negative impact of the pandemic–from tourism, economy, education, and nearly all sectors of our global economy–both developed and developing countries.
The negative side of globalization is the global disparities that enable international terrorism and cross-border crime, allowing the rapid spread of the disease. On the positive side, the cross-border flow of people, goods, money and information creates new wealth and opportunity. And throughout this, a certain level of economic stability has been made possible with technology–itself a by-product of globalization.
Empathetic leadership is also critical to transforming our world and world peace. Good leaders are harbingers of hope, can in still a sense of self-belief and think beyond limited goals pertaining to their own organization for the larger good. Good leaders can galvanize key stakeholders, envision a blueprint of change, analyze, foresee and take the best step for the greater good of humanity.
Amidst a pandemic this has brought to focus how every human being has the potential to become a leader, take charge and ease suffering. It has become very clear that our pandemic-stricken world needs leaders who can:
- Deploy an analytical approach to solving problems
- Ensure fairness
- Connect people and organizations, and value collaboration
- Be resourceful but also humble.
Good leaders must be realists and guard against being overwhelmed by challenging circumstances. They must uphold compassion, empathy, righteousness, proactiveness and embrace diversity and commitment to the right to dignity. Diversity is essential–it broadens perspectives, ensuring the canvas is wide, large and all accommodating for a spectrum of views. Diversity ensures that decisions taken and implemented cater to all and leave no one behind–creating a flattened playing field.
Ideal leaders can inspire active citizenship by all members of their societies, which can widely spread to a global level. We must all take responsibility to fulfill our roles to our society, our communities and countries–and ultimately to our world. This activism doesn’t require wealth and power–it simply means that citizens can, in a balanced way, fulfill both their rights guaranteed under their constitution and take on the responsibilities to become model citizens.
When each of us takes the responsibility to become actively involved as a good citizen, we can feel empowered to achieve for the greater good of our community and our society. Once empowered with this sense of responsibility, we can galvanize and inspire others to join us on this journey which can start from our classrooms, our schools, our village, our town, our state and can grow to reach greater heights.
