Tuesday, January 4, 2022 – Monocle minutes
Opinion / Christopher Cermak
Meets in the middle
Where has diplomacy gone? Despite all our talk of maintaining decency and value-led diplomacy in the West, it feels as if we have fallen further away from our goals. Last year was supposed to be the year when everything changed. The United States would be back and promote the rule-based system and all of us – governments, the media, civil society and ordinary citizens – could begin to heal our divided nations. And yet, it is not just in the United States that people seem to be in each other’s throats, with little room left for compromise or understanding.
From individuals to superpowers, China to the United States and Europe, we polarize into separate camps that have little capacity to reach agreement. We all stand up for what we believe in but seem determined to convince our opponents to submit to the process. It feels like we have little choice: how do you react to blatant violations of human rights in China, violations of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland, or anti-waxers in the US and Europe, if not with an uncompromising and undiplomatic stance? Of course, we can not just keep speaking and let them get away with it? There is misinformation, populism and autocracies. And to top it all off, after the year we’re all had, we’re just tired. We do not have the energy to reach out, understand and mediate disputes in our families, communities or nations. They will not understand; it is better to punish the other side and give way to ourselves. We need some self-care right now anyway.
This is not really a column of answers (“They never are”, I hear you say) but somehow the approach needs to change. The work with diplomacy, mediation, with compromises, is difficult. And it has become even more difficult when our world is divided into parallel versions of the same reality. So maybe this column is just a nod to these – the UN and its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pictured, read my interview with him from last year here), the peace mediators, the compromising politicians and the social activists – who are still stubbornly trying to reconcile differences of opinion. When so many of us seem to have given up trying, let’s greet the people and organizations who are still looking for answers to end our polarization, and reach out across the aisle with a helping hand.