Ideas and Information
Although not necessary new, an instrument of statecraft that has received increasing discussion since the end of the Cold War is “public diplomacy”—using ideas and information to influence policy in the world. And the U.S. government is not the only entity involved in such diplomacy. Nye (2002) has talked about this kind of diplomacy as a third dimension of power—as epitomized by transnational relations and involving essentially non-state actors. Consider, For example, the role that the Cuban Miami exile community has played in shaping U.S. policy toward Cuba and the so-called Jewish lobby has played with regard to U.S.-Israel and U.S.- Arab relations. What about the outsourcing of American jobs by U.S.-based companies to countries like china to lower costs? How about the ideas and information that are exchanged in the person-to-person diplomacy that occurs as international students seek an education at U.S. universities? And what about the notions of civil society and democracy that are brought by U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations to countries in the Global South as they deliver humanitarian relief services and engage in development project? Finally, consider the importance of remittances to immigration to the United States. Given that remittances can account for 25 to 75 percent of the budgets of some countries, risking being an illegal in the United States may be a small price to pay for improving the quality of life of a family “back home.”
Brown (2010) has called these activities transnational transfers and views them as a new type of instrument of statecraft affecting how the United State is both viewed and can act abroad. Note that the actors described above are not part of the American government; yet their behavior shapes both the problems and the options that U.S. policy makers face in developing foreign policy. Like terrorist groups and criminal organizations, these non-state actors give governments pause because they are not states. Governments are used to interacting with other countries but these types of actors have no borders, no sovereignty, and are not necessarily tethered by international law. In many respects, these transnational transfers are emblematic of what has been called the “vanishing borders” phenomenon that is increasingly causing problems for policy makers, government, and scholars of foreign and international politics because what it represents does not fit easily into the Westphalian map of the world nor with views concerning how this system functions.