CDD0007

Written evidence submitted by Dr Carlos Solar

 

Summary:

 

  1. Cultural events provide considerable support to the role of defence diplomacy in ways that are beneficial to the UK armed forces in the implementation of the mandates given by civilian-led defence policy, and the overall efforts made by government policymakers engaging in diplomatic activities furthering the UK’s interests in the world. All military activities during peace and war involve human relationships that must be nurtured. Cultural exchanges between organisations (national and international) are therefore intrinsic to the role of those executing defence missions (political and military). They cannot be excluded from everyday interactions inside the UK’s military or between the UK’s military and like-minded counterparts worldwide. The value of cultural events within defence diplomacy for the UK is immense, given in past and present history in shaping geopolitical events in almost every corner of the world. From Asia to the Americas, the Royal Navy, for example, has served as a mirror to foundational periods of indigenous naval forces and other maritime enterprises. The UK’s role in the world still holds value on these and different historical junctures for countries abroad. Despite the UK not ruling most of these territories anymore, their cultural, educational, religious, and political values can be seen by any British authority who travels abroad and recognizes elements of their cultural inheritance embedded in the history and present of many nations.

 

  1. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (REMT) is well-known among the military worldwide and to people familiar with military history and their rich tradition of ceremonies that date back to the creation of the modern army. However, the REMT is less known to the public outside this niche. On the one hand, because the REMT appeals to an international audience, it is a disadvantage for foreign travellers that it takes place in Edinburgh, where for many outside Western Europe it is costly to attend. The setting of Edinburgh is though inimitable, and it is a unique experience for those that can attend. The REMT is imitated widely in around the world where their armed forces hold Tattoo Military Music Festivals. This is evidence that culture plays a key role in defence diplomacy as countries adopt their meanings and values to performances that were once foreign to them but have now been accepted locally. To elevate the importance of defence diplomacy, the REMT should continue aiming at its international audience, facilitating military and civilian music, history and art exchanges. British embassies worldwide could liaise with local musicians and art performers to celebrate tattoos and launch more inclusive programmes based on cultural activities. The UK military would benefit from improved links to other forces and the civilian population.

 

  1. Given the historical dominance of the Royal Navy around the world and its civilian legacy in establishing maritime trade that connected continents, naval assets are an advantage to the UK’s defence diplomacy as they symbolise centuries of sea tradition but also cutting-edge technological capabilities. British vessels arriving at foreign ports break the coastal view with their magnitude. They are tremendous to see and usually make the local news, and families gather to see the arrival of vessels. Their use for public and private receptions should be encouraged. Few politicians and decision-makers have ever visited a warship destroyer, frigate, aircraft carrier or submarine. Building defence diplomacy is an exercise of life practices and tangible experiences that change thinking towards other nations. Utilising British sea power as a gathering place is one way of illuminating like-minded partners of the UK's role in the sea, its capabilities, and its roles and missions. They should be considered real-life representations of the term soft power.

 

  1. Supporting defence diplomacy is a mandate for any government, but more specifically, a combined effort between the Ministry of Defence and the FCDO. However, the armed forces often lead defence diplomacy because of their everyday interactions with foreign forces. British officers overseas acting as defence attachés or partner nations’ military advisors tend to be the UK’s primary representative in defence diplomacy. Defence cultural diplomacy is a two-track effort, one being led by the defence community and another by broader interest pursuing FCDO policy. The government, thus, should acknowledge that resources to support cultural aspects within defence diplomacy should serve both purposes and be calibrated to sometimes ad-hoc missions, depending on the matter to be addressed. Meanwhile, the UK government has many institutions attached to promote its culture abroad (and therefore the resources linked to these), the military however does not, and it usually falls to single offices abroad to lead defence diplomacy.

 

  1. The government should encourage military and foreign policy communities to consider new avenues of work that can support and coordinate collaborative activities on cultural defence diplomacy. For example, the UK’s strong position in offering military education and exchange programmes to officers from abroad could be supported more actively by the greater education and science communities. Currently, only a few specialised educational establishments in the UK receive cadets and senior officers for educational purposes. Few of them offer distance education, and almost none have offices to deliver courses abroad, unlike universities that have moved on to a more modern post-pandemic educational system. This means that only a select group of like-minded military partners (that is, those from nations that can afford to send their officers to the UK) are receiving a British education, maybe the number one soft power tool the country has at the moment.

 

  1. A wide range of key institutions can support the UK’s defence diplomacy efforts. Among  government departments, the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Energy can help in linking the defence sector to more comprehensive industrial policies that have global reach and include clients from like-minded countries; the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport can coordinate a cultural campaign support defence diplomacy that is holistic to the UK’s branding and promotion across the world; the Department for Education can extend military education as a soft power tool across educational establishments; Home Office can overlap defence diplomacy and global security issues that affect like-minded partners who use their armed forces, for example, to combat non-military threats such as transnational organised crime; Department for International Trade, can link the UK’s commerce and trade efforts to the military industry and its role in creating jobs, providing services to the community, and overall implementing development issues linked to security and peace. A series of other public bodies, such as executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies, and advisory non-departmental public bodies, should also be consulted in providing services and independent and expert advice to ministers dealing with the issues mentioned above.

 

  1. The UK government should propose a combined planning strategy for its cultural defence diplomacy that serves all relevant agencies (the MoD, FCDO, and DCMS). Other governments have created reference tools designed to help policymakers and planners cover the goals and establish indicators of success for each involved actor and the overall group. The US government, for example, launched its Diplomacy, Development, and Defense (3Ds) – as represented by the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Defense– strategy and planning group in 2013 to chart development and collaboration among these three organisations. Setting up common indicators of impact against objectives is complex. It does not reflect on the challenges of planning cultural defence diplomacy along various UK organisations or across various global, regional, and country-level initiatives. Assessment, monitoring, and evaluation programmes should mind critical differences in establishing success indicators such as the geographical focus; the resources deployed; the interagency mandates assigned; and the timings for action to be taken.

 

  1. Lastly, the armed forces' ceremonial roles contribute to defence diplomacy in various ways, but chiefly in engaging actively with counterparts and their respective traditions and customs. Armed forces elsewhere can generate a bond with the UK if they see reciprocity in their respect and admiration for military traditions, national values, and other symbolic objects that posit value to their countries. Good militarism, or a way of feeling pride in values of order, hierarchy, team-planning, and courage, travels internationally despite language, religious or cultural barriers. The UK thus does well in appealing to other like-minded partners in offering ceremonial representation and taking what counterparts believe are equally valuable ceremonial responses.

 

4 November 2022

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