Humanitarian Aid and Public Diplomacy

In recent years, public and cultural diplomacy has been deeply affected by the idea of humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, the past few years have seen several devastating natural disasters, like the earthquakes in Haiti and more recently Japan, and the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Indonesia and India. In each of these situations, existing aid organizations rushed to help survivors recover, and new aid programs were developed. Celebrities brought together their star power to raise money for those suffering, like the “We Are The World” single sold on Itunes to send money to Haiti, or the “Songs for Japan” album, also sold on Itunes, which sent proceeds to Japan. Direct foreign aid supplied by governments, as well as these non-governmental aid organizations and programs, have had a huge impact in the discussion of public and cultural diplomacy.

The idea of foreign aid as a diplomatic tool is much newer than it seems to be. In fact, the very concept of countries donating aid to other countries has only been around since after World War II, (Lancaster2007, 25). Nowadays, however, foreign aid is a huge part of political discourse. Foreign aid can range from “billion dollar reconstruction projects in war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan,” (Lancaster, 2007, 25). to small aid donations like the “Texts for Haiti Relief” program, where individuals donated 10 dollars per text. Some would argue that the different natures of these programs, from government organizations, to NGOs and international organizations, to individual, personal aid activities, prevents them from being considered as tools of public diplomacy, as they do not form a unified, collective policy controlled by the state. They would argue that international and personal aid programs do not conduct such activities out of political motivation, or to enhance the reputation of any country, even their host. In fact, many critics of government based aid argue that it should be left up to such international aid organizations and personal actors. However, the donation of aid has demonstrably achieved diplomatic aims. For example, the U.S. first began donating aid during the Cold War, when they were attempting to prevent countries from falling to Communism. Some countries, like Denmark, have made donation of humanitarian aid a large part of their international “image” gaining esteem in the international community, (Lancaster 2007, 190).

These unfortunate recent disasters have highlighted the relatively new idea of humanitarian aid, and its use as a diplomatic tool. The programs that have arisen to address them have also put a lot of emphasis on direct person-to-international organization contact. For example, the Texts for Haiti Relief program raised over 30 million dollars from American citizens donating to the Red Cross, (Choney 2010) Perhaps, in the future the affect of foreign aid on public and cultural diplomacy will be based less on the actions of state government, but on the actions of the state’s domestic citizens.

Works Cited

Choney, S. “Mobile giving to help Haiti exceed $30 million.” MSNBC. Jan, 2010. Web Article. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34850532/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/t/mobile-giving-help-haiti-exceeds-million/