Archive for August, 2007
The promise of noöpolitik
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007The next big revolution of the information age should occur in the realm of diplomacy. The United States has been undergoing a revolution in business affairs since the 1960s, and has also undertaken a revolution in military affairs (RMA) since the late 1980s. Now the time is ripe for a counterpart “revolution in diplomatic affairs” (RDA):
Diplomats will have to rethink what is “information,” and see that a new realm is emerging — the noosphere, a global “realm of the mind” — that may have a profound effect on statecraft.
The information age will continue to undermine the conditions for classic diplomacy based on realpolitik and “hard power,” and will instead favor the emergence of a new diplomacy based on what we call noöpolitik (nü–oh–poh–li–teek) and its preference for “soft power.”
