Diplomacy as psychiatry

Here is the blog entry as it was brought to my attention by a reader: http://writinghistory.blogspot.com/2006/01/diplomacy-as-psychiatry.html.

It's such a queer premise, in the standard sense, that I am immediately drawn to it. I used interpersonal psych stuff in my Ph.D. (later book) to explain how two bullied countries (East Germany and Romania) dealt with the bullier (USSR). The DDR tried to become best boy in Third World ("Are you pleased master?") and Ceaucescu used venue to play bad boy a la Tito ("See, I make friends where I please!"). So I am partial to this sort of stuff.

The question he poses?

A country is based around an identity. That identity can be mature ("We are Singapore and Singapore stands for ... X in the world.") or, for lack of a better word, retarded in its development ("I don't know who we are except we've suffered a lot together in the past and I'm generally pissed off about the outside world.")

So this blogger's basic question really is, Is there a role for national "psychiatry" in bringing a Gap nation up from the depths?

And I guess I would say, yes, there is.

And it would run like this: First in security, you need to help them understand their self-destructive behaviors and gain confidence in themselves and their capacities for self-rule and self-defense. Second, in economics, you'd need to help them understand similarly their capacity for self-development of capital (especially human through education and the liberation of women). Ultimately, you'd have to work on their political identity in the world, a sense of who they are and what they're capable of.

I say it in BFA: the journey from Gap to Core is one of youth (Gap) to middle-age (New Core) to seniority (Old Core). It really is a demographic journey as much as anything else, so remember that when you deal with national identity in the Gap, you're dealing with kids, so to speak, or very youth-skewed demographics.

This is why the spread of religion in the Gap, especially the dueling spreads of Islam and Christianity, is so vital. Youth look for guidance, and the most accepted global package for that is religion, which, like much psychiatry, is all about gaining self-control, self-awareness, etc.