By Aznan Mat Piah
Diplomatic Communication, offered by the Department of Communication, IIUM, has shed light into the intricacies of international diplomacy and protocol. No other local university is offering this subject as part of the undergraduate programme for communication.
Diplomatic Communication is rather wide because students need to have sufficient knowledge and background of international politics, international relations, diplomacy, history, economy, contemporary issues, and culture as well as areas related to humanities, apart from a strong foundation in communication concepts and principles.
Students must have a critical mind and an ability to analyse and articulate issues holistically. They must examine communication in relations to diplomacy, negotiation, building relations, diplomatic engagement, managing and tackling of issues or topics related to avoidance of conflicts or conflict resolutions.
One good reason probably why I was asked by the Head of Communication Department to teach this subject, since joining IIUM six years ago, is because of my experience after serving more than 20 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at four Malaysian diplomatic missions abroad.
My job then revolved largely around public diplomacy, media management, international public relations, and defending Malaysia’s national interest abroad in our nation’s effort to enhance diplomatic relations with other countries to bring about political stability and social and economic growth for Malaysia. Such experience is indeed useful because I would be able to shed lights on what’s happening on the international scenes and relate to the reality of situations on the grounds.
Students will have the opportunity to examine current issues in relations to bilateral and multilateral context as well as regional cooperation. Multilateral issues would include human rights, environment, women, children, poverty, health, economy, social, energy, defence and security.
Related to the multilateral issues will be an understanding of the roles of international organisations and institutions like the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Commonwealth, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Students are also expected to understand the meaning of protocols, conventions, treaties, and consular and immigration matters, such as those contained in Vienna Conventions on Consular Relations and Diplomatic Relations.
All in all students must have a good grasp of a whole range of international issues to be able to relate to the diplomatic communication involving relations between nations and national interest.
In the past, students who enrolled for this course were mostly those whose specialisation was organisational communication. But there were also students at a higher level whose major was journalism and public relations. I would encourage other majors to take this subject.
Graduates having taken this course would have acquired sufficient knowledge to prepare them to join the diplomatic service.
Students with a strong command of the English language would have an additional strength because they would be able to express themselves with greater clarity and would have the ability to analyse and articulate the issues.
Most importantly, students should learn to make sense of the intricacies and complexities of issues involved in diplomacy and the international context in the national interest.
As a fast developing nation, Malaysia places its emphasis on the importance of building relations with foreign countries and its roles globally. Such knowledge would be very useful for communication graduates.
Photo taken from Cynthia Burnham