Soft power campaign: Mobilizing our global army of 1.8M citizen diplomats
Our country is in possession of a diplomatic arsenal that many other countries do not have: the more than 1.8 million people all over the world who are doing a form of diplomatic work for the Philippines, often without their knowing it.
They go there in search of greener pastures, and through their diligence, dedication, and admirable skills with which they do their work, they create a positive image of Filipino workers and citizens, and the Philippines in general. They enhance the “attractiveness” of Filipinos and the Philippines in their respective corners of the world and thereby fortify our country’s “soft power.”
A country like the Philippines may not have much in terms of hard power, but it can build up and leverage its soft power by highlighting the attractiveness of its culture, political values, and foreign policy. Our global corps of more than 1.8 million “citizen diplomats” are helping us make other countries realize how attractive our cultural values and worth ethics are, simply by doing their work in the best way they can.
In all the countries I have served in as a career diplomat, I have met hundreds of people from all walks of life who could not help but heap praises upon their Filipino employees, workmates, and supervisors. I have met ordinary citizens, high-ranking government and military officials, and business and cultural leaders whose gratitude and respect for our overseas workers were heartfelt and immense. Whether they were talking about a Filipino household worker who had become so close to their young children that she had come to be considered a part of their family; a Filipino driver or factory worker whose many other extra skills had become a valuable asset to their factories; or a Filipino supervisor who had an uncommon gift for balancing the interests of employees and the goals of the company, their words of praise always left me feeling proud of our countrymen and grateful for the help they were doing for our country on that side of the world.
But much of that diplomatic work, as I said, is being done by our countrymen abroad, often without their knowing it. It is just a “byproduct,” an unintended result of their day-to-day efforts as overseas workers. Imagine how much else they can do to assist in promoting our country’s soft power if we provide them with the knowledge and skills that will make them even more effective as citizen diplomats. Imagine how much else they can do if we give them the information that they need to promote our country as a tourism or investment destination, or as a source of cultural values and practices that other countries can learn from. Imagine the augmentation of diplomatic forces we shall get if we consciously mobilize these citizen diplomats as our informal partners in soft-power diplomacy.
I remember the derisive question that Joseph Stalin asked in 1935 when someone suggested to him that Pope Pius XI would be pleased if he stopped his repression of the Catholic Church in Russia: “The Pope? How many divisions has he got?” Like the Pope, we cannot pride ourselves on having considerable military might. But we do have a global “army” of citizen diplomats ready to be deployed for our soft-power campaigns.
Dr. Emmanuel R. Fernandez,
deputy head of mission and consul general,
Philippine Embassy, Singapore
