Is intercultural competence considered essential to diplomacy by the field of international relations?

Within the field of international relations, there will always be those people who believe that the field’s emphasis on power relationships among states naturally leads to minimization of cultural difference. For example, the need for economic and political collaboration at the state level forces governments to work together, regardless of cultural differences.

Yet there are many within the field of international relations who believe that the need to understand cultures and cultural norms is not only critical, but will also continue to grow in importance. People working with companies, governments and international organizations must understand the cultural contexts of other societies in order to successfully collaborate.

For example, when working with people who live in a culture that relies on direct communication methods, it is important to know that they may not understand forms of communication common in cultures that use more indirect communication (such as non-verbal signals and contextual cues). Indeed, miscommunications such as this can often make or break a cross-cultural project. Nancy Adler, currently at McGill University in Montreal, Canada uses the following example to illustrate this common miscommunication:

“A Japanese businessman wants to tell his Norwegian client that he is uninterested in a particular sale. To be polite, the Japanese says, ‘that will be difficult’. The Norwegian interprets the statement to mean that there are still unresolved problems, not that the deal is off. He responds by asking how his company can help solve the problems. The Japanese, believing that he has sent the message that there will be no sale, is mystified by the response.”

It is possible to learn much about political and economic interactions of states or global organizations, but being inteculturally competent will provide the tools to be able to understand the cultures of the people living in those states. If a person expects to successfully interact with members of a given state, he or she must demonstrate some form of intercultural competence.

At AFS, we advocate that a good way to build intercultural competence is to live within a given culture, experiencing that culture on its own terms and using the concepts of intercultural learning to maximize the learning experience. This way, each generation of young people who participate in AFS programs will have sets of skills needed to interact with others who are different from themselves in an age that is characterized by such interactions.

Paul Edinger is a strategic operations intern for the Intercultural Learning department at AFS International, where he works to facilitate the implementation of ICL strategy throughout the AFS Network. His time at AFS began in April of 2011 with the Development and Branding department and he continues in 2012 as an intern for ICL. Prior to joining AFS he taught English, Spanish and computer literacy courses to Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants to the United States while obtaining his B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in Latin America. He completed minors in Anthropology, Political Science, Latino Studies, and Spanish Language Studies.