The concept of diplomacy has transitioned over the years to have created notions of traditional and modern diplomacy, owing to the changes in international relations. Modern diplomacy involves multiple variables outside of the tangible forces of power in the conventional realist understanding that function within the realm of war and peace among nation-states. The spread of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), non-state actors, and changing priorities that work on an international scale like climate change, arms proliferation, migration, terrorism, international trade, human rights, prevention of ethnic conflicts, and increasing population pressures have raised the need for modern approaches to diplomacy that classical means cannot contain.
The Concept of Bamboo Diplomacy
In the modern sense of international relations, countries have been using elements of their culture to exhibit some form of diplomatic tactic to further their national interests. Culture has become a tool for the exertion of soft power, and a means to interpret and implement states’ foreign policy goals. Bamboo holds great cultural significance in most southern and eastern parts of Asia and is a symbol of values like integrity, loyalty, and resistance. Countries in Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam and Thailand, used this image to create their versions of foreign policy approach in the form of ‘Bamboo Diplomacy’. Bamboo Diplomacy is a foreign policy approach that is defined based on the properties of a bamboo tree- having strong roots, a solid stem, and flexible branches. When translated into foreign policy, these characteristics appear as the rootedness of a country in values like humanitarianism, independence, peace, and justice among others. A strong stem and flexible branches represent the proactive approach of a country’s foreign policy, which can strategically sway to uphold its national interest.
Political Climate in the Southeast Asian Region
The Southeast Asian region is strategically placed between the Indian and the Western Pacific Oceans, housing a few of the fastest-growing economies in Asia and harbouring enough resources to interest external parties. With such significance, it is natural for Great Powers like the United States of America and China to attempt to exert their influence in the region to further their interests. Academics especially note that China is trying to seize the space that is left by a waning America in the region. While China is on a spree to establish economic dominance, America is on an attempt to counterbalance this to prevent a rising China. Amidst this rivalry, smaller powers in the region tend to get pulled into the friction in a fashion similar to Cold War-era politics. Bamboo Diplomacy is a foreign policy tactic used differently by Thailand and Vietnam, keeping in mind their historical ties, cultural roots, and national interests, to either sway with the wind where the politics take it, like Thailand’s policy, or stay neutral and rooted in the changing world order, like the case of Vietnam– both exhibiting qualities of the bamboo tree as described by their respective governments.
Interpreting the Bamboo:The Case of Thailand and Vietnam
Historically, maintaining relations with larger kingdoms meant two things– a threat to the self, as well as a balancing act against other large kingdoms. Therefore, small kingdoms like Siam (present-day Thailand) maintained friendly relations with multiple large kingdoms, meaning there were multiple overlapping spheres of influence within a particular region. The Khmers maintained a friendly relationship with both Siam and Annam (present-day Vietnam). This flexibility in foreign relations came in handy even during attempts at colonialism, thereby aiding Thailand from ever being colonised by foreign powers. It is a policy that aids the country in switching sides in the direction that the wind flows, to further its national interests.
By creating a foreign policy built on the idea of flexibility, Thailand not only aims to prevent any sort of conflict with a major power but also tries to maintain its territorial integrity and independence. The knowledge of the fact that being a small country, Thailand can be dropped as an ally by any Great Power at any point in time enables the country to create barriers against losses and prevents victimisation amidst great power rivalry. While neutrality is the ideal state for a small power, its relative unattainability in international relations and politics guides the adoption of hedging strategies like Bamboo Diplomacy, to reduce risk to itself as much as possible.
The Thai state is built on three primary ideologies– nation, religion, and King. The Cold War-era spread of communism was becoming a threat to its ideology and thereby forced it to look towards the US. However, in recent years, Thailand has faced no such ideological threat from either Russia or China and thereby isn’t forced to look west for the same. The international order is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, and thereby alliances can’t be trusted for the long term.
Bamboo holds great significance in Vietnam as it does in Thailand. The term “bamboo diplomacy” was coined by three-time Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. A speech that he made at the Party’s National Conference on Foreign Affairs in 2016 introduced this new approach, which was later explained as a diplomatic approach that is “soft and clever but still persistent and resolute; creative but consistent; resilient but valiant”.
The tenets of this diplomacy are proudly upheld from the Ho Chi Minh era, based on his writings on foreign policy. He stressed the importance of Vietnam’s national interest, national solidarity and international cooperation, and finally, flexibility, calling foreign policy to be “firm in principle, myriad in applications”. Unlike Thailand, Vietnam has historically focused on a policy built on neutrality– their interpretation of the bamboo. A major component of Vietnamese foreign policy that represents its policy of neutrality includes the ‘Four No’s’, “no military alliance, no affiliation with one country to counteract the other, no foreign military base in the Vietnamese territory to act against other countries, and no force or threatening to use force in international relations.” Therefore, Vietnam sides with neither China nor the US. The former, shares common ideological stances and with the latter, security interests, while both share economic relations with the country. Vietnamese policy, therefore, believes in maintaining relations with all major powers but not siding with any, thereby being equidistant from all to further its national interests and at the same time reap the benefits of partnership with all.
Conclusion
In the face of challenges like the rise of Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, especially its claims in the South China Sea (East Sea for Vietnam), policy approaches like Bamboo Diplomacy are key for smaller powers to further their goals and national interests in an international system governed by a great power struggle. The Indo-Pacific region is a hotspot that frequently witnesses the US-China power struggle, making growing economies like Thailand and Vietnam strategic pawns. Therefore, such diplomatic tactics push for a multilateral approach to politics in the region. The more multilateral the approach, the greater independence there will be for a country’s functioning.
This highlights the need for greater international cooperation to balance the expansion of spheres of influence. At the same time, strategic relations with major powers (flexibility for the sake of national interests, as bamboo diplomacy aims) would enable countries like Thailand and Vietnam to use aid and technology from them to further growth and development in their own country.
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