Relational Diplomacy is first and foremost not about theory; it is about action – about building a united planet one relationship at a time.
Relational Diplomacy is also about breaking the rules and inventing new ones: turning staid practices upside down, building connections in the most unlikely places, tapping into the magic of coincidences as well as the fruits of hard labor to weave together the most unlikely, but extraordinary relationships.
A successful Relational Diplomat embodies the beautiful marriage of proactive and reactive behavior – both planning and allowing things to happen. When opportunities come, a successful Relational Diplomat is willing to toss away the play book to move forward with the unexpected.
A true Relational Diplomat building a new United Planet Japan, 2011
I’ve recently returned from two weeks in Japan traveling with Ms. Chie Goto — in Nagoya, Tokyo, and the disaster-struck area of Tohoku. I was struck by Chie’s spirit as it embodies the idea of relational diplomacy: she is vibrant, open, practical, and above all, about finding connections and solutions.
A bit about Chie: She left Japan for a few months in late 2010, when the politicians of Nagoya and the Aichi Prefecture were pressing her hard to run for political office. “[This is] not my life’s mission,” she replied to them time and time again. She had a larger vision of the world.
Ever since she was a girl and peered wide-eyed at her bedside globe, Chie yearned to see and understand the world. The opportunity came when she was 14, and traveled around the world with her mother. Afterward, she won a special global prize and opportunity to travel to see the Pope.
After returning from her international experience, Chie’s life was forever changed. She wrote an article to the editor of a newspaper to share her experience and desire for global understanding and world peace. Chie went on the study and live around the world, founded several international organizations devoted to world peace and understanding, and published her autobiography.
In the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Chie searched for an opportunity to make a difference and help her country. When she found the position with United Planet Japan, she jumped at the chance to build a new organization with a global vision in her own country; she has been off to an incredible start.
I was so lucky to have the chance to travel with Chie, and see her skills in action. She has a remarkable ability to make connections between people, and to motivate them to take action. In Nagoya, Chie and I met with Governor Omura and made a two-hour presentation in Japanese to the Aichi Prefecture Assembly members.
We are trying to build ties at a local government level to inspire relationships among businesses, schools and universities, civil society, and people. By connecting people and organizations across borders and diverse sectors, we are able to tap into unharnessed synergies, find pockets of unexplored potential, and build bonds of cooperation and support needed in a globally challenged world.
We are working from the top down, bottom up, and right through the middle. Each level of relationships fuels the other. If we can garner local government support, business support, academic involvement, civil society engagement, and people-to-people collaboration and exchange, we can build a sturdy net of relationships that will form a foundation for further collaboration and innovation.
With this goal in mind, government, business, academic, civil society leaders from Japan will visit the United States to build mutually beneficial relationships; and leaders from the United States and other countries will go abroad. Business leaders will focus on sectors of common interest and global importance such as clean energy, life sciences, IT, agriculture, etc.
Through this effort, I hope that we can turn the push for global competitiveness (in which one country’s loss is another country’s gain) into a push for true global cooperation (everyone wins).
When we extend the limits from the traditional “us” versus “them” to encircle the entire planet with the idea that we are all on the same team in which we all depend on each other, learn from each other, and uplift one another in an interconnected world, then we will have taken a very important step in the realization of a united planet.
Please view Chie’s beautiful and moving video of reconstruction efforts in Japan: Click here for the video.
Please read more about United Planet Japan. Thank you.