|
A N A L O G
Y I N D I P L O M A C Y A N
D P O L I T I C S
We use analogies to help us to understand new and unknown situations in terms of what is
already known. Analogies are thus a powerful tool for learning, but they can also be used for
persuasion and manipulation. Analogies are used in all fields of life, but particularly by politicians
and diplomats.
Historical Analogies and their Function
Historical analogies are a variety of analogy often used by politicians and diplomats to explain
or make a prediction about a current or future event based on events in the past. The past event is used as a source, while the present or future situation is the target of the analogy.
Drazen Pehar, researcher on language and diplomacy, "suggests several reasons that historical analogies are used by politicians and have such a strong effect on public opinion: “…historical analogising is an essential part of national narrative and national identity. Nations tend to group around their most central and deeply rooted memories. Over time many of those memories acquire the status of lasting symbols that nations use to describe their contemporary concerns or fears as well. [Analogies] …help people symbolically transcend the limitations of time and space. …the need for spiritual transcendence is one of the main sources of motivation for the use of historical analogies in dealing with international affairs."
A second function is “identity maintenance. Historical rhetoric not only provides nations with the sense of worldly immortality; a surrogate of religion, but also with an answer to the question “Who are we?” Historical rhetoric explains the lasting origins of a nation. Typically, when a crisis occurs in the life of nation, responses to it are couched in a language of past models, of past dealings with a crisis similar in shape if not in essence. When a president says that the nation must look to its past for a vision and inspiration to guide its present choice, he actually says that if applied to the present, models from the past will help the nation maintain its spirit and sense of specific identity.”
A third function “is simply to provide a sense of cognitive orientation in international affairs. The future is always open and undetermined, and the number of international actors and the complexity of their relations are too high to give a straight clue about future developments.” Historical analogies “indicate a direction for actions in this world, which would otherwise remain too complex to allow for an intellectual grasp. Historical analogy simply projects an image of past developments into the future and thus makes the future cognitively manageable.”
A fourth function of historical analogies is as an “anti-depressant; a colourful imagery which neutralises a boring and non-dramatic kind of political reality. Historical analogies make international relations intriguing, interesting, worth watching and participating in, which without such a drama-producing imagery would not be case. They put things and relations, as it is said, into perspective and make them tastier, less boring and more purposeful. Historical rhetoric sets a scenery or stage linking the past with the present and the future into the chapters of single drama to offset the bad feeling that nothing important or big is happening.”
("Historical
Rhetoric and Diplomacy: An Uneasy Cohabitation," Language and
Diplomacy, Malta: DiploProjects, 2001)
|
