In a meeting today of the Russia-NATO Council, the
website NATO-Russia Council was unveiled. I wonder why it took so long to open the Russia-NATO Council web site. To quote the web page: "Today, due to Internet, many of us have an opportunity to get on-line information on the activities of various international bodies." Thanks for the 1996 news flash. The Russia-NATO Council was founded in 2002 and they only now created a website for mutual understanding. They don't seem very serious about this endeavor do they?
Despite the website unveiling, the most notable happening was NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
referring to Russia's "iPod Diplomacy." I have heard of
Gunboat diplomacy,
Ping Pong Diplomacy,
shuttle diplomacy, and even
Cowboy diplomacy. So what is iPod Diplomacy? Thank goodness Jaap de Hoop Scheffer defined the term, but his definition is quite different from this definition of the US
using iPod Diplomacy with North Korea.
Quote:
De Hoop Scheffer suggested that Putin's threat earlier this month to retarget Russian missiles at Europe was as damaging to a person's ears as listening to an mp3 player too loud.
"In this already fairly complicated discussion, it is advisable to lower the volume a bit," de Hoop Scheffer said at a news conference. "Because as it is with your iPod, if you put the volume too high, it will in the long run damage your ears."
He added: "If you do that in international diplomacy, you might in another sense damage your ears."
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So De Hoop Scheffer tells Russia to tone down the rhetoric or Russia might get hurt? First it is a bad analogy. Second, isn't that exactly the kind of threatening rhetoric he was encouraging Russia to stop? Maybe we could call De Hoop Scheffer's new diplomacy
Ironic Diplomacy.
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