First published on 19.08.2011.
Hina Rabbani Khar recently made a stylistic splash on the diplomatic stage– using her uniqueness (a young logo adorned female markedly different from the old boys club of the standard image of diplomacy).
Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. (Pravasi Image)
One interpretation is that style is substance, with the choice of such a different choice of foreign minister representing an authentic effort in re-branding, especially with regard to relations with India to which Hina Rabbani Khar gained far more positive attention in her first official visit at the end of July.
Another interpretation however is that the real salience of the appointment of Pakistan’s first female foreign minister is a cover-up of substance by style.
How blurred this picture becomes is reinforced by Hina Rabbani Khar’s meeting with
Hurriyat/Kashmiri separatist leaders in the Pakistan High Commission during her visit to New Delhi.
For those who interpreted her activities as a distinct break from the past, this meeting was constructive and totally transparent to the robust Indian media.
For those with a more negative impression, though, the meeting revealed that Hina Rabbani Khar’s appointment represented the same old reality –with a glamorous face subordinated to a dangerous state apparatus.Besides the branding question, this case raises a number of more generic questions about substance and style in diplomacy – and diplomats.
As I mentioned in a much earlier post (page 9), Richard Holbrooke was a rare diplomat who combined both in an authentic fashion.
But in most cases one is subordinated to the other.
Evan the classic hybrid, Henry Kissinger, masked his traditional mode of statecraft with a veneer of celebrity status –seeking publicity for his societal flair but strenuously avoiding it when undertaking secret diplomatic shuttle diplomacy in the national interest.
Although far less experienced than Kissinger we may be seeing a similar massive gap between celebrity style and diplomatic substance in the forays of Pakistan’s new foreign minister.
