By Zekarias Talo ( Zekarias Talo has studied foreign service and journalism. He currently works at the Public Diplomacy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). He can be contacted at [email protected] )
Soft power is all about winning foreign hearts and minds, in order to build trust and credibility in a nation. The capacity of a given nation’s soft power determines socio-economic and political cooperation with foreign countries and other international non-governmental actors. If a nation has a strong soft power capacity, then it would have wide access to attract foreign direct investment, trade and the enhanced ability to promote itself as a desirable tourist destination.
In the history of Ethiopia’s foreign relations and diplomacy, the country has been exercising both soft and hard power to secure its national interest. Lately, Ethiopia has shown great interest and progress in exercising soft power through public diplomacy, in order to realise development, democracy and peace.
Ethiopia exercises soft power using celebrities, cultural exchanges, art and musical shows, foreign and domestic media relations, sister cities, Parliament to Parliament relations, foreign student scholarships and think-thank group relations.
Art has the power to make or break the people to people relations and formal diplomatic relations between one given nation and another foreign country. Art and artists are one of the most important tools in accomplishing the mission of a country’s soft power.
A simple example could be the master of reggae music, Bob Marley, and the king of pop, Michael Jackson, and the power they had to cultivate the minds of the foreign public about Jamaica and the US, respectively. Ethiopia has numerous prominent artists and celebrities who can perform artistic works across the globe.
On March 2014, for example, more than forty prominent Ethiopian artists performed on a cultural and modern musical show during “Ethiopian Week” in Khartoum, Sudan, and throughout various regional cities. During the show, Sudanese people warmly welcomed the Ethiopian artists and hosted them well until their day of departure.
Sudanese citizens were also enthusiastically supporting and admiring the artists’ performances on stage. The musical show in Sudan, therefore, highly enhanced the people to people relations between Ethiopia and the Sudan. Beyond building strong people to people relations, the show played a great role in letting the Sudanese people know about the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD). But this is just the beginning of Ethiopia’s efforts to use art as tool of diplomacy.
In this globalised and interlinked world, if a nation wants to be influential in soft power diplomacy, working hand-in-hand with domestic and foreign media is very important. Regarding domestic and foreign media relations, Ethiopia is conducting its vision in a very comprehensive and inclusive manner.
Working with domestic media is highly important to bringing national consensus on socio-economic and political policies, as well as the agenda of the nation. Currently, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) publishes daily news online and has a magazine called “A week in the Horn”. Both instruments are highly informative on affairs related to Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
As part of this aspect of soft power, for instance, the Ministry enabled thirty-two Sudanese journalists and writers to visit major development works in Ethiopia, including the GERD. Ethiopian missions abroad also aggressively inform and brief media about Ethiopia’s socio-economic and political progress through community radio and television stations in their respective mission areas.
Beyond main print and broadcast media outlets, Ethiopia effectively utilises new social media interfaces, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others. Even individually, the foreign affairs minister, Tedros Adhanom (PhD), informs the domestic and foreign public about the core activities of his ministry through his Twitter and Facebook accounts. This all clearly displays how Ethiopia is utilising media outlets as soft power, in a bid to realise Ethiopia’s position in the international arena.
Sister cities relations is another ultimate tool to boost soft power diplomacy. When one city gets tied as a sister city with another foreign city, the people and government of the two cities act as family members and support each other in all areas. In this term, Ethiopia has a very long history.
It all goes back to 1975 when Addis Abeba and Nairobi became twinned. During the monarchical and military regimes, the twinning was very low and unattractive due to insufficient knowledge about sister city relations and the heavily ideological foreign policy. But, after the fall of the military regime in 1991, sister city relations have continued to grow.
Addis Abeba and other regional cities of Ethiopia are connected with more than seventy foreign cities. The best examples are the twinning of Addis Abeba with Washington DC, Beijing, Johannesburg, Petersburg, Istanbul and more than twenty other cities. Also, regional cities from South to North, West to East, such as Adama, Dire Dawa, Wolaitta Soddo, Gondar, Debre Berhan and others are twinned with foreign cities.
Beyond the people to people relations with sister cities, Ethiopia is getting various best experiences, technical, financial, material and other supports. Best experiences could be the relationship of Gondar and Debre Berhan with Montgomery, Belomel and Fatershitate.
In many countries, Parliament is the highest power holding body of a nation. Making a good soft power diplomacy with the parliaments of other nations means having ultimate power on a nation’s hand to realise national interests.
Ethiopia understands the soft power diplomacy of Parliament-to-Parliament relations and has given due attention to Parliament’s relations all over the world. Ethiopia has been working in co-operation with parliaments of the European Union, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic and Kuwait.
Ethiopia’s soft power diplomacy also involves academic institutions and think tanks. Recently, on March 2014, scholars from the Addis Abeba University (AAU) and Khartoum University met in Khartoum, Sudan, to discuss the issue of Eastern Nile co-operation. The scholars reached a consensus to work together for the benefit of the Nile riparian countries and to conduct various research on the Nile River.
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Beyond scholars and think-tanks, Ethiopian universities and training centres also provide multi-dimensional scholarships to foreign students. Students from Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and other nations have been included in the list of graduates of Ethiopian universities.
In all dimensions, Ethiopian soft power diplomacy is on a good track. But it is something that could not only be done by government or state actors.
Rather, it is incumbent upon all citizens. Thus, irrespective political differences, all citizens, whether living in Ethiopia or abroad, need to support and work to boost the booming Ethiopian soft power diplomacy, in order to make Ethiopia a vibrant nation in the global arena
