2022年3月18日
Brian Wong
EJ Insight
Diplomacy is not war by alternative means
What does it mean to engage in diplomacy?
Is it to wage war via alternate means? For that sure seems to be the case as we speak today – with elaborate peddling of conspiracy theories and half-baked, stylised facts on one hand, and the touting of vitriolic and flagrantly belligerent rhetoric on the other. We imagine diplomacy to be civil and constructive, or – at its worst – strategic and conniving, yet never bereft of basic decency. Sadly, much of this seems to be little more than mere wishful thinking at an age of performative theatrics.
Engaging in an in-depth dissection of what diplomacy currently looks like, would be a rather depressing and futile exercise. Name-calling, lie-disseminating, smearing and ensnaring through rhetorical and political death-traps. ...
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