Foreign Policy
Fall 1998

Explaining Complexity

By Fernando Delage, Managing Editor, Politica Exterior

 

As Raymon Aron once said, and this was of course before the end of the Cold War, the world was becoming a nightmare for decision-makers and a paradise for analysts. Whether you believe or not in the coming anarchy or in a clash of civilization, the fact is that a single dominating ideological conflict has given way to a multiplicity of regional and ethnic conflicts, and the stability of a bipolar world to the confusion and instability of a multipolar world. Never before have so many structural changes in the international system occurred simultaneously.

Because of the acceleration of history’s rhythm, an effort to understand the new realties is ever more necessary, but it is also ever more difficult a single and lasting analysis. The impossibility of any paradigm is a major characteristic of today’s world. The challenge then is to explain that new complexity, a task faced particularly by the editors of foreign-policy journals.

That said, there are major differences among journals. Those published in English and in a country with a global influence can have a world-view in mind and address–and of course influence–a worldwide readership. The focus and readership of journals published in a different language differ notably, for reasons quite easy to understand.

It is not only that their audiences are mainly national. The growing public lack of interest in foreign affairs is magnified in smaller countries, where even quality newspapers are reducing their coverage of international news, and there is no tradition of foreign-policy or comparative-politics studies. The size of the foreign-policy community, and the number of politicians interested in these issues, is so small that a journal aimed exclusivelyat them could not survive–at least, of course, one that it is publicly funded. So, without renouncing to influence decision-makers and helping shape your country’s foreign policy, it is the educated reader you must have in mind.

You must make an effort to explain policies and events, governments’ behavior, to identify trends, and to anticipate policy changes. To do that, an editor has to distinguish the really relevant topics–never an easy task, being overwhelmed by originals, and pressed by quickly changing circumstances.

Journals in less influential countries, and with smaller readerships, have to address broad issues–whether political, strategic, economic or cultural–with more scarce intellectual resources. But they can find an added value to others with an in-depth analysis of their country’s foreign policies and politics, and of their regional setting.

Spain thus can offer the viewpoint of a major actor in European Union issues–except perhaps in common foreign and security policy–and also the knowledge, the sensitivity, and the potential to understand better than others regions such as Latin America, the Maghrib, or the Mediterranean.

To exchange views among colleagues, on topics and trends, but also on editorial approaches, “user-friendly” writing and layouts, can give a better knowledge of the “trade,” make it possible to follow similar approaches to common problems–for example, the general lack of interest in events beyond one’s country–and make for a deeper understanding of postÐCold War uncertainties.