Chapter 10
Medical Diplomacy and the Battle for Hearts and Minds
I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Jeremiah 31:33
Politicos and their gods have been after hearts and minds for a long time. Methods have changed and today we see how military medicine is inextricably linked with “winning hearts and minds” through medical diplomacy, the judicious and strategic use of medical care to influence the attitudes and behavior of the local population to support a nation’s war effort. But “medical diplomacy” is an incongruous construction. Medicine is about repairing hearts and minds, not winning them. Nor does medicine have anything obvious to say about diplomacy. While warring sides sometimes enlist physicians as mediators or are willing to accept medical facilities as a neutral conflict-free zone amenable, perhaps, for negotiations, this says nothing about medical diplomacy. Diplomacy, for its part, has little obvious connection to medicine. Diplomats assuage hurt feelings, mobilize coalitions to protect national interests and defuse (or ignite) international crises.
Winning the support of the local and international population, however, is a central goal of modern war (Gross 2015). This need is particularly crucial if nations go to war with the express purpose of aiding the local population and rescuing them from a rapacious rights-violating regime. Since one would expect gratitude from rescuees, the goal of ongoing diplomacy is not so much winning hearts and minds but trying not them as the unpredictable course of armed conflicts may soon leave local nationals wondering “with friends like this, who needs enemies?”
What's up in Chapter 10?
- Medical Humanitarianism, Medical Relief and Medical Diplomacy. Any difference?
- In the Field: Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) & MEDCAPs
- Ethics (I): Intelligence Gathering
- Ethics (II): Recruiting Civilian NGOs to the Combat Team
- Medical Diplomacy in Iraq and Afghanistan: Success or Failure?