Transcript Document

Language & Diplomacy
Malta, March 2011
Dr Biljana Scott
Context & Inference
Duane Michals Things are Queer
Context & Inference
Elliott Erwitt
Eugene Manos
Context & Inference
Spencer Platt, 2006
Inference
Nick Ut, S Vietnam, 1972
Charlie Cole, Beijing, 1989
Anthony Suau, S Korea, 1987
Marc Riboud, USA, 1960s
Oded Balilty, 2007
Luiz Vasconcelos, Brazil, June 2008
Inference
Eugene Smith, Minimata,1971
Therese Frare, Aids victim,1990
Inference
The image that ‘shamed’ the world
Bosnian Serb camp at Trnopolje,
filmed by British crew, 1992.
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Context & Inference
 ‘headache pill’ versus ‘longevity pill’
 Saddam Hussein is a threat to our nation.
September 11 changed the strategic thinking
for how to protect our country.
 ‘A mighty empire will be destroyed’
 ‘Ibis, redibis nunquam in bello peribis’
 UNSCR 1441 provides a final opportunity
 Power (over/to?); Laugh (with/at?); Fear (of/for?)
 ‘now this is worth considering’
Context & Inference
• That’s not bad
• Quite good
• Perhaps you would like to think about …
I would suggest …
• Oh, by the way… / incidentally…
• I was a bit disappointed that / it’s a pity you…
• Very interesting
• Could we consider some other options
• I’ll bear it in mind
• Please think about that some more
• I’m sure its my fault
Context & Inference
“Judging by the poems, van Rompuy is not only
a charming, attentive and sensitive man,
but he’s clearly in the right job.”
(Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, November 2009)
Language as action
Speech Act Theory: Performatives
The performance of an act OF saying something
(Locutionary act)
The performance of an act IN saying something
(Illocutionary act)
DIRECT vs INDIRECT speech acts
John Austin, How To Do Things With Words, 1955
John Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of language,1969
Politeness
Berlusconi and Merkel
Likeability (5 Jan 2008)
Rath and Macek, Czech republic
Nigel Farage on van Rompuy
Politeness: indirectness
 Admit impingement / Indicate reluctance
 Indirect speech acts
 Hedges
 Counterfactuals & modals
 Tense
 I wanted to ask you..., did you know...
 will you please…
 Impersonalise:
 indefinite pronouns (one, whomsoever)
 plural pronouns (we: royal, editorial, exclusive, med.)
 Passives (the decision has been taken)
 impersonal verbs (It is considered / required)
Persuasion
Rhetoric: the art of persuasion or hot air?
 Ethos: authority, credibility, evidence
 Logos: reasoned argument
 Pathos: emotional appeal
Ethos
Caroline Kennedy: you know
Daniel Hannan: devalued PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs
Persuasion
 Soft (pathos)
- Music: ‘the ring of truth’ connotations
- Stories in a capsule: metaphors & connotations
 Hard (logos)
- Definitions and typecasting
- Argumentation and fallacies
 Smart (combination / target the audience)
- Manipulating inference
- The unsaid: presupposition, ambiguity
Divisiveness
OLD/Traditional
VS
NEW DIPLOMACY
- state
vs.
people power
- coercion
vs.
attraction
- imposing
vs.
convincing
- ideologies
vs.
preferences and perception
- secrecy
vs.
credibility
- power-play
vs.
mutual benefit
- self-serving
vs.
partnerships & networks
- directing
vs.
facilitating
- win/lose wars for land vs. win/win for values, stability…
Adapted from: Mark Leonard, Going Public. 2000
Cadence of counterbalance
Chiasmus (ABBA criss-cross structure)
Work to live, don’t live to work
The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country (JFK)
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in
a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character.” (MLK)
Music of Persuasion
Tricolon (3 reinforcing parts):
“I came; I saw; I conquered”
My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task
before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of
the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
(BO Inaugural, 20 January 2009)
“.. our special relationship founded upon our shared history,
our shared values and, I believe, our shared futures.”
(Gordon Brown to US Congress, 4 March 009)
Soft: Metaphor
Aristotle: mastery of metaphor is a measure of genius
• Wikileaks as the 9/11 of diplomacy
• Internet as a jungle, highway, library, bazaar
• The roadmap to peace
• The body as a fortress : a time bomb
• War on drugs : victims of abuse
• Every metaphor is the tip of a submerged model
Havel / Obama / Baggini H.O.s
Securing agreement
• Common ground
- Intersecting & expanding circles
• Reframing
- Assertion
- Pre-emptive ‘not X but Y’
- Rhetorical questions
- Appeal to authority; precedent; reason; morality
- Appeal to emotion; images; aspiration
• Reconfiguration (creative)
- Metaphor & humour
Metaphors / Analogies
What IS said:
how apt is the analogy?
How does one measure its aptness?
 What is NOT said:
Are the omissions significant?
Can it stand up to ridicule?
 What ELSE might be said?
How much more apt are the alternatives?
 What IMPACT has it had?
Correlation and causation?
‘Jasmine’ / ‘Lotus’ / ‘White’ revolution
Colour revolutions:
Orange: Ukraine, 2004
Rose:
Georgia, 2003
Pink /Tulip: Kyrgyzstan, 2005
Cedar:
Lebanon, 2005
Green:
Iran, 2009 <
Saffron: Burma, 2007
Singing: Baltic States, 1987 <
Civil war: Revolution : Rebellion : Revolt :
Uprising : ‘Humanitarian disaster in the making’ ?
7
Apartheid wall : security fence
7
Soft: Story in a capsule
Rebellion
Terrorist
Honour killing
Undocumented
Ethnic cleansing
Jargon
Difficulty
Scary movies
vs
vs
vs
vs
vs
vs
vs
vs
civil war
freedom fighter
misogynist murder
illegal immigrant
genocide
necessary precision
opportunity
terror-porn
Connotation and translation
Q: How would you translate the following terms:
soft power
public diplomacy
outreach
governance
Q: Is there a difference in meaning from
the English?
Connotations and collocations
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
• soft answer
• soft-centred/hearted
• soft detergent
• soft drink
• soft landing
• soft sell
• to soft pedal
• to soft-soap
• soft touch
• soft option
• soft subject
• to ‘go soft’/ ‘be soft’
Connotations and collocations
UN resolution operative clauses:
Notes
Notes with appreciation
Notes with interest
Notes with satisfaction
Takes note
Takes note with appreciation
Takes note with satisfaction
Hard: Categories & Definitions
Semantic categories
• Define: refugee, genocide, terrorist
• ‘Who is a civilian?’
• Labelling and typecasting (the ‘chatter factor’)
Hard: Definitions & Fallacies
Semantic categories
• Define: refugee, genocide, terrorist
• ‘Who is a civilian?’
• Labelling and typecasting (the ‘chatter factor’)
Attack Ads
• Logical fallacies // propaganda toolkit
Logos
Logical fallacies
• Non Sequitur (fallacy of false cause)
e.g. Our nation will prevail because God is great.
post hoc ergo propter hoc: temporal > causal
cum hoc ergo propter hoc: correlation > causation
• red herring
• appeal to the majority (argumentum ad populum)
• appeal to authority (ipse dixit: he himself said it)
• appeal to fear (argumentum ad baculum)
• slippery slope
• false dilemma
• bandwagon (what is popular is good / right)
Hard Persuasion: Procrustes / Damastes
Procrustean: ‘Fitting the facts to the frame’
Hard Talk techniques
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Reframe
Ignore the question
Acknowledge the Q without answering it
Question the question
Attack the question
Attack the interviewer
Decline to answer
Make a political point (speaking point)
Give an incomplete answer
Repeat answer to previous question
State the Q has already been answered
Apologise
Hard Talk exercise
In groups of 3:
1. Interviewee defends the value of their job;
and their own suitability for the job.
2. Interviewer challenges them.
3. 3rd party observes exchange & body language:
feeds back.
Smart: Presuppositions
1. We have today therefore pledged to do whatever is necessary to:
* restore confidence, growth, and jobs;
* repair the financial system to restore lending;
* strengthen financial regulation to rebuild trust;
* fund and reform our international financial institutions
to overcome this crisis and prevent future ones;
* promote global trade and investment and reject protectionism,
to underpin prosperity; and
* build an inclusive, green, and sustainable recovery.
G20 Statement, London, 2 April 2009
Smart: Presuppositions
What do you think of Western civilisation?
Why does it always rain in Malta?
Would you like to know your future?
Too many innocents on death row
Q: A legal vs legitimate war
Q: ‘war on terror’
Implications: war on terror
• “Use of "war on terror" implied a fight against a shared
single enemy.
In fact, the forces of violent extremism remain diverse.
Terrorism is a deadly tactic, not an institution
or an ideology.”
• “The phrase also implies that the best response to terrorism
is a military one, tracking down and killing hardcore
extremists.
In fact the coalition there could not kill its way out
of the problems of insurgency and civil strife.”
David Miliband, January 2009
Smart: Implication
‘Hidden triggers’ in UNSCR 1441
a) ‘Iraq may/will face serious consequences’ as a result
of continuous violations
b) ‘Iraq is/was in breach of past resolutions’
c) Instances of Iraqi non-compliance are to be recorded,
and the UNSC reconvened ‘in accordance with
paragraphs11 and/or 12’.
d) ‘Other …facilities … could be / are capable of being
used to support the production of chemical agent . . .
Smart: Implication
e) The UK September 2003 Iraq Dossier:
Iraq’s Programme for Weapons of Mass Destruction.
‘Saddam is prepared to use chemical and biological
weapons if he believes his regime is under threat.’
vs
Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction.
‘Saddam is willing to use chemical and biological
weapons, including against his own Shia population.’
f) A legal vs legitimate war (Chilcot Enquiry)
Implication / Signalling
Bush "wants to divert attention from his domestic
problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler used."
(18 September 2002)
• Däubler-Gmelin is made to resign
• Condoleeza Rice, then Rumsfeld, say relations
with Germany have been 'poisoned‘
• Rumsfeld denies his German opposite
(Peter Struck) a meeting in Washington that week
• Schröder's letter to Bush on the subject of the
analogy is dismissed as 'an explanation rather than an
apology‘
• Colin Powell declines to offer Joschka Fischer
the ritual post-election congratulations.
• Schröder flies to the UK immediately on his election
in order to ask Blair to mediate in diplomatic fall-out
Smart: Ambiguity
• Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case
• Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
• Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
• Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
• New Vaccine May Contain Rabies
• New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
• Include your Children when Baking Cookies
• Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
• Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge
• Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Smart: Ambiguity
NARROW:
 TUAS: Tactical Use of Armed Struggle
Totally Un-armed Strategy (1990s Sinn Féin)
BROAD:
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

Legitimate military target / non-combatant
reasonable force
special and differential treatment
A mighty empire shall be destroyed
SCOPE:
Ibis redibis nunquam in bello peribis
Old men, women and children
Repartee
Wilde: “I wish I'd said that.”
Whistler: “You will, Oscar, you will”
Nancy Astor: “Winston, if you were my husband,
I'd put poison in your coffee.”
Churchill:
“Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.”
Noel Coward to Churchill on inviting him to the opening night:
“Bring a friend, if you have one.”
Chruchill: “Can’t attend first night, please send ticket for 2nd
night – if you have one”
Stańczyk by Jan Matejko
1514 Rusian capture of Smolensk
Naji al-Ali's Handala
Proverbs exercise
One participant explains and illustrates an proverb
The other attacks and ridicules it:
“I couldn’t disagree more”
“That is an absurd proposition”
“Nothing could be further from the truth”
“On what evidence do you say that?”
“Quite on the contrary…”
“Surely you’re not suggesting ….”
“How can you possibly believe that…”
Proverbs
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link
A leopard cannot change his spots
A picture is worth a thousand words
A problem shared is a problem halved
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
A house divided against itself cannot stand
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Persuasion exercise
Give an impassioned talk using an appeal to:
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•
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•
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•
Fear
Honour
Solidarity
Righteous indignation
Contempt
Glory
Innocence
…
Ambiguity
1. ‘A diplomat is an honest man sent to lie abroad
for the good of his country’
(Henry Wotton, 1521 - 1587)
2. ‘immediate withdrawal of Israeli armed forces
from territories occupied in the recent conflict’
(UNSCR 242 on 1967 war)
• ‘The United States acknowledges that all Chinese
on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is
but one China and that Taiwan is a province of China’
(Feb 1972 Shanghai Communiqué)
4. To ‘sex up’ a dossier
Ambiguity
Rule 51.3 in Chapter 5 of the Olympic charter:
“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial
propaganda is permitted in the Olympic areas” (pre-2007)
“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial
propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues
or other areas.” (post-2007)
Ambiguity
‘Both sides agree that discussions between them will
begin immediately to settle the question of the return to
the October 22 positions in the framework of agreement
on the disengagement and separation of forces under
the auspices of the UN.’
Israel / Egypt Six Point Agreement 11 November 1973, Provision B
Egyptian:
‘Both sides agree that discussions between them will
begin immediately to settle the question of the
return to the October 22 positions in the framework of
agreement on the disengagement and separation of
forces under the auspices of the UN.’
VS
Israeli
‘Both sides agree that discussions between them will
begin immediately to settle the question of the
return to the October 22 positions in the framework of
agreement on the disengagement and separation of
forces under the auspices of the UN.’
Israel / Egypt Six Point Agreement 11 November 1973, Provision B
Ambiguity
Facilitating a political process designed to determine
Kosovo's future status, taking into account
the Rambouillet accord.
UNSCR 1244 Article 11, June 1999
Ambiguity
Facilitating a political process designed to determine
Kosovo's future status, taking into account
the Rambouillet accord.
UNSCR 1244 Article 11, June 1999
= to determine K’s future status
> designed to determine K’s future status
> facilitating smthg designed to determine K’s f status
> [aiming/seeking/hoping to] facilitate smthg
designed to determine K’s future status
Ambiguity
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,
Section 3: Rules of Interpretation
 Articles 31
- ‘ordinary meaning of terms’
• ‘in the light of the treaty’s object and purpose’
• appeals to context (text and beyond)
 Article 32
‘Recourse may be had to supplementary means of interpretation …
when the interpretation according to article 31:
(a) leaves the meaning ambiguous or obscure; or
(b) leads to a result which is manifestly absurd or unreasonable.’
Poetry & Diplomacy
• Curiosity, the ‘cheerful energy’
• Heightened language / awareness
• Observation
• The Unsaid
• Aspiration:
redress (Heaney’s ‘glimpsed alternative’)
‘One campaigns in poetry, but governs in prose.’
• Imagination:
Compassionate; Creative; Imaginative act of faith
Capture the imagination of others
• Force & grace: suaviter in modo, fortiter in re