The crucial task of maintaining relationships and sharing information between key allies is not much different from what audiences can see on the hit Netflix drama, says a senior British diplomat in Canada.
Although Diplomat Fictional The stories, ripped from the headlines, exemplify what it means to prevent crises from spreading behind the scenes — especially the “pent-up atmosphere of panic” surrounding many countries, says David Prodger, the British deputy high commissioner to Canada. Characters.
“I think a lot of those vignettes were very, very true to real life,” Prodger told Mercedes Stevenson in an interview that aired Sunday. Western bloc.
“You’re dealing with big issues, and you have to deal with them quickly, too.”
The thriller stars Keri Russell as a career American diplomat who is suddenly appointed the new US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where she works to defuse disasters at home and abroad. The series was filmed inside real foreign offices and diplomatic residences in Britain, and was praised for its accuracy.
Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell in their new political film “The Diplomat”
As described in the presentation, Ottawa-based Prodger said diplomacy often involves maintaining and developing smaller relationships between foreign diplomatic officials to ensure a “big picture relationship” is maintained, with officials at all levels constantly talking to each other.
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However, he said the offer may exaggerate the kind of communication that even high-level diplomats like him can have with government officials.
“I’m not sure I can get into (Foreign Minister) Mélanie Jolie’s office here,” he said.
“(But) whether it is in day-to-day policy, or between our missions and our main hubs, we expect to see our allies inside and outside the State Department all the time.”
“Those relationships are really key, and we spend a lot of time trying to put them in place,” he added.
Prodger said the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership — which includes Canada and Britain alongside the United States, Australia and New Zealand — “is becoming more important” as democracies work to protect national and economic security from growing threats.
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As governments struggle to ensure people have the right information, he said it is crucial that like-minded countries work together to counter disinformation and disinformation, as well as cyberattacks and other hostile actions.
At the same time, he said part of the job includes “paying attention to where public opinion is.”
“We are public servants,” he said. “We work for our government, so we have to think a lot about how we deliver what we do as well.”
Transparency with the public about what the government knows about current and emerging threats, or during an emergency such as a terrorist attack, is critical, Bodger said.
Despite warnings from military and government officials that the current threat environment is more dangerous than ever, Bodger sees it differently.
“I think things are always on the brink,” he said.
“If you look back 10 years, we had Iraq, we had Afghanistan, we had 9/11. And before that, we had the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Iron Curtain. We had genocide in Europe. So… there were always those big geopolitical questions .It’s changing right now.
“I think what we’re seeing is… that global geopolitics is struggling to realign itself. And I think that’s something we’re working hard to achieve,” he said.
&Copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
