Narrowing The Divide Between Eastern and Western Philosophies for Dispute Resolution using DBPAS and Free Zone-Enclaves
Whenever I move to a new country, I am always fascinated by what I find on local TV stations. So far, I’ve lived in South Korea, Singapore, the UK, the US, and the UAE. Apparently, in order for me to live in a country, it must begin with either an S or U. Today, I call the city of Dubai home, where I’m kept constantly entertained in a melting pot of Western, Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophies manifesting themselves through content, representing the dynamic reality that is here.
To add to the cultural hodgepodge of the situation, my children are approximately 50% Korean, 40% African and 10% European (with trace bits of Indigenous American, Bengali, and Chinese) genetically-speaking, while also being both 100% American and 100% Korean passport-wise. You could say I have somewhat of a vested interest in world peace.
My wife, one of the smartest people I know, speaks Mandarin Chinese, Korean and English fluently, further touting a degree in Chinese social sciences from one of the more prestigious universities in Korea. I personally believe she should be in charge of mediating China-US trade and maritime disputes. To round out the international nature of the affair, my MBA thesis was based on part of my work involving the examination of socioeconomic factors that contribute to loan repayment rates in East Africa (and also how the future of AI would affect this). You can probably imagine how I ended up quite conscientious and engaged in the analysis of cultural norms and international conflict resolution concerns as a matter of daily routine. I am writing this for the purposes of helping to resolve conflicts in the South China Sea, Ukraine and various points of cultural contention globally. Naturally, this will be light reading.
I would like to organize this post into three sections. The first is on why I believe talks between Eastern and Western powers can break down more than rarely. From there, I would like to analyze, briefly, the merits of hybrid perspectives in relevant countries’ national and organizational policy decisions. Lastly, perhaps we can explore the media’s treatment of audiences and the general awareness (or lack thereof) of embedded cultural biases and how that reverberates across various societies.
Why Talks Between the US, China and Russia Often Break Down
Let’s start by stating the obvious. When it comes to this discussion, literally, we’re all speaking different languages. Mandarin treats time, hierarchy, and objects much differently than English. English touts many exceptions to rules, while Mandarin’s language structure rules are pretty straightforward. Russians have three genders for their nouns, while English is strictly gender neutral. The list goes on. If we navigate into cultural differences, we delve into a world of nearly infinite complexity. However, if we stick to some of the language difference examples, we find how the US and China might think differently about rules and exceptions thereof.
In the book Legacy of Ashes, which is based on mountains of declassified CIA documents, we find that US intelligence and intermingled diplomatic initiatives have been historically hampered by a lack of the following: non-Western personnel, foreign language capabilities and overall meaningful cultural understanding. Where there is a void in understanding, we often find conflict.
How do we resolve this? Let’s start with possible long-term strategies and then work our way back to short-term solutions. If we’re serious about positive change, it starts with young students. Especially in superpower states such as Russia, China and the US, a drastic increase in empathetic foreign cultural history, language and political philosophy could go a long way. The US, of course, has maintained an indirect push strategy over the past several decades through worldwide media (US movies, music and brand exports); however, perhaps we could all do a bit better with a bit more pull. This translates up to our diplomats. It also may behoove us all to examine, with a bit more scrutiny, who is representing which national interests and why. As time marches on, international affairs are very much domestic ones. If a diplomat or top political strategist doesn’t speak the national language of a nation they are engaging with on trade deals or other high-level talks, what are they doing there? They simply cannot think or communicate on the same wavelengths as their counterparts.
With regards to short-term solutions, the answer to the Ukraine-Russia and Taiwan-China confrontations may lie in modified UAE-styled free zone and enclave models. I do not believe that the following proposed models are in-and-of-themselves the optimal solutions. Much of the success of how these concepts could work in reality stem very much from how they are implemented. The concept is not that free trade zones or enclaves promote economic and social stability inherently and thus are good ideas. Nuance and “the how” is as vital as the proposed directions, especially with regard to the methods involved in recognition of divergent cultural priorities.
In the UAE, we have the DIFC, which is a special zone within the country but set apart from the UAE in its laws, police force, judicial system, financial system, and cultural norms. The banking system there is based in US dollars. Furthermore, the UAE also has a portion of the nation of Oman within its borders, known as Madha. This special enclave has no border control, and Omani currency is used there. Omani laws apply. The history of Madha and the conflict resolution story is quite fascinating.
If Russia were to have free zone-fashioned enclaves the sizes of towns and cities within various strategically important areas of Ukraine that were protected by the Ukrainian constitution and Russian military/police forces, Ukrainians could vote with their feet, instead of their passports and livelihoods. One might argue that this could result in further conflict and point to the 2014 Crimea crisis. Firstly, the Crimea annexation wasn’t internationally recognized. Secondly, Crimea’s 2014 situation was not the result of a peaceful negotiation. Thirdly, the Free Zone-Enclave hybrid concept comes with the perks of economic development, stability-minded conception and boasts free trade (a major deterrent of conflict when implemented properly).
In this free zone-enclave model, Russia would have key port access points, freedom of international road transport and the political stability it desires in key locations, while Ukraine as a country could maintain its pre-conflict laws and norms. The NATO question would not be as much of a concern, because Russia would maintain a protected presence within the country for the assurance of its economic and cultural footprint. Further, in Taiwan, a similar model could work with the Republic of China, granted with a few, culture-specific adjustments. The key to positive outcomes lies in how these negotiations and implementations are carried out. As far as who should spearhead that initiative, I again nominate my wife.
A Hybrid Eastern-Western Cultural Approach Towards Policy: DBPAS
Every country touts a bit of mythology around its founding leadership and written artifacts that serve as historical claims of legitimacy and national pride. There is perhaps a bit of collective ego at play here. It has been observed throughout the ages, that we humans have an immense capacity for romanticizing the past. I’ll bypass the topic of religion, but mention its diverse nature from region to region. The creator ensured humans would universally love a good story. That love of stories truly binds us all together. However, we must examine this ego-driven prejudice around our histories and national identities, along with this innate propensity of romanticizing national and cultural stories and histories if we are to truly optimize the frameworks that govern us in our various locations of domicile.
Broadly speaking, the Western philosophies typically endorse derivative forms of democracy and due process. Meanwhile, Eastern philosophies generally endorse harmony, hierarchical respect and a natural order-first perspective. Does the law derive from nature, reason, itself or somewhere else? Depending on how you lean on this, it is important to understand that this fundamental area of concern has driven the dominant political philosophies for which we all are captives in our respective locations. If we can step back and examine this when we craft policy, we can open up new possibilities in what is achievable by limiting cultural and preconceived frames of perspective. I would like to propose that governments and organizations (that value cooperative global progress) produce new types of standard reports when considering new domestic or intra-organizational policies, which I shall describe here. These reports that have external ramifications, called DBPAS reports (Different Base Philosophy Analysis and Strategy) are developed by non-partisan research organizations with drastically different philosophical leanings than the organization proposing or implementing a strategy. This would allow for considerations of completely different types of solutions that could be considered, integrated or discarded with explanation, as to increase the area size of solution spaces. This DBPAS process also bares the fruit of inherent, increased reasoning capabilities that are broader in scope and more effective with regards to both Western-oriented results and Eastern-oriented harmony. Why not have results and harmony?
Media Awareness: Does The Tail Wag The Dog?
There will be a healthy dose of generalizations here. It’s a fair practice when discussing media organizations, I presume. In the US, there are essentially three types of news organizations that dominate distribution channels that lead to the majority of the American viewership. There’s essentially a spectrum of conservative, moderate and left-leaning news groups. Chinese media groups and its viewership are less involved with party politics (for obvious reasons) and more concerned around the politics of creating shared economic prosperity. I would like to focus on countries with a free press that have constitutional rights to publish false or misleading stories. The media industries in these countries thrive on fanning the flames of viewership interests. It is a cycle whereby what is published fuels more interest in a particular concern and often can even give birth to new types of belief-sets about the nature of reality. Belief-sets about the nature of reality have, obviously, large impacts on election cycles and the balance of power in these countries. As the balance of power shifts, so does the varying degrees of propaganda-esque material that each country’s media organizations distribute, intentionally or not. Information distributors and the natural consciousness about foreign entities have always been integral in check-boxing the preconditions of armed conflict by government leadership. Therefore, I would like to propose, for all democratic-esque societies, primary and secondary education course implementations on the global history of propaganda and its consequences. Republics are usually as strong as their voter-bases are wise, especially when it comes to engaging with foreign nations. Those nations which have most productively engaged and integrated with foreign powers have historically been the same nations that have prospered economically and socially for the longest durations of time. We must ask: how many citizens in any given country view other nations’ citizens as essentially faceless adversaries? The greater this number, the higher chances of unnecessary death and destruction as a direct result of the desire for misinformation from news organizations that just want eyeballs for advertisement and subscription revenue.
Conclusion
We have outlined a few measures that can improve the cohesion and cooperation of various entities from different parts of the world. To minimize the chances of unnecessary armed or economic conflict, we have a menu of options. I have proposed a new type of third-party reporting system in Section 2 called DBPAS. DBPAS reporting processes entail encapsulating problem-sets, and then commissioning and integrating structured, detailed, analytical and strategic feedback from government or corporate organizations that speak different native languages and have different philosophical roots in order to expand the contours of solution spaces. Western-styled “solution”-oriented and Eastern-styled “harmony”-oriented mindsets can coexist to produce, as corny as it may sound, harmonious solutions.
Furthermore, I have explored how national consciousnesses feed media organizations, which along with political power dynamics, feed back into national consciousnesses. In nations with Western-derived media organizations, which are commonly republics, it is important to nurture the viewership from a young age with primary and secondary educational courses on the history of propaganda around the globe and its effects. This will likely reduce much of the faceless-enemy perception syndrome that is often required for armed conflict.
Finally, with regards to the question of China, the US, Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine, we have examined a modified UAE-styled free zone-enclave model. Of course, this is with the understanding that economic and national security incentives alone are not indicative of successful initiatives.
It also is imperative that we truly recognize a fundamental truth. All of these countries in current, intense disputes have different national languages (aside from China and Taiwan). These different languages translate into different methods of thinking. We could devolve into the might-makes-right international order and dismantle decades of progress towards a more peaceful human condition. In the short-term, we have the options of implementing DBPAS processes, establishing modified-foreign-controlled free trade zone-enclave models, and putting my wife in charge of the negotiation and implementation processes. In the long-term, teaching our children to know better, through the aforementioned educational upgrades, can drive better media behavior, based purely on altered content demand. Taken together, we might just be able to establish optimal routes towards shared, harmonious and result-oriented prosperity globally.
Footnote
For further reading on international and cross-cultural conflict resolution history and political theory, I highly recommend the following works. These have very much inspired my drive and search for new geopolitical solutions to the very important issues we face today.
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Hathaway and Shapiro. This book covers a quite expansive global history of international law and politics. The current geopolitical climate is nothing if not the culmination of historical events that shaped the present balance of power. Many of these defining events across theatres of war and tables of negotiation are masterfully described and analyzed in this modern masterpiece.
The Singapore Story: Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew by the man himself and founding President of Singapore. This book maps how Singapore emerged from the rubble of World War II to become a global leader and successful cultural melting pot it is today. It is an incredible story of how various cultures were integrated across philosophical, religious and cultural lines through strategic planning and unwavering vision, while being wedged between large, opposing superpowers.
