Jovan Kurbalija

The importance of language for diplomacy cannot be overstated. Language is a central tool for diplomats. Diplomats interact, negotiate, and send signals through language. Language is also a powerful tool in shaping the agendas and discourse of international relations. Control of the meaning of words and concepts usually leads towards control of processes, and ultimately, to power.

At the WSIS, like at other international events, the richness and complexity of the diplomatic process, including the official negotiations, but also the social activities and media coverage, is crystallised in diplomatic documents. Verba Volant, Scripta Manent. In the case of the WSIS, the written record is contained in the Final Declaration and Plan of Action as well as in the plethora of documents adopted in the preparatory process, including documents from Preparatory Committees, regional documents, non-papers, and statements delivered by delegates.

This set of official documents is the basis for Diplo's research, performed through a number of methods including quantitative analysis (statistics, congruence), content analysis with the objective of identifying semantic patterns, analysis of the use of diplomatic linguistic techniques such as ambiguities and analogies, and expert analysis of the content in order to identify the main concepts. This short paper will focus in particular on the results of the analysis of the five regional declarations adopted in the preparation for the WSIS:

Africa - Bamako, May 2002

Europe - Budapest, October 2003

Americas - Bavaro, January 2003

Asia-Pacific - Tokyo, January 2003

Western Asia - Beirut, February 2003

I would like to begin the discussion with an observation about the development of the way in which stakeholders refer to the WSIS. The title "World Summit on the Information Society" actually includes two summits - Geneva (2003) and Tunisia (2005). In the preparatory phase for the Geneva Summit, when the impasse in negotiation was threatening the Geneva summit, the practice of referring to the Geneva event as the "Geneva phase of the WSIS process" was adopted. The shift from referring to the summits as two key events towards referring rather to the "WSIS process" came about in order to reduce the risk of the failure of the first event held in Geneva.

One of the first steps in research on diplomatic language is to identify key concepts and terms that influence the frameset and agenda setting process. We selected a number of concepts and terms relevant to the main objectives of the WSIS: digital divide, sustainable development, capacity building, civil society, private sector, information society, and the Internet.

The first three concepts, digital divide, sustainable development and capacity building, relate to the development aspect of the WSIS. Two of the main objectives of the WSIS are to promote development through the use of ICTs and to reduce the digital divide. With this context in mind, we did a frequency count of the occurrences of these terms in the five regional declarations. We were surprised to note how rarely these terms were used. The term "digital divide" appears only one to four times in each regional declaration, with the exception of the African declaration, which has ten references to "digital divide".

We also expected to find the term "sustainable development" used frequently: this concept has high relevance in modern international relations, especially in the context of the UN Millennium Goals. Sustainable development was also the theme of the last major UN-summit held in 2001 in Johannesburg. However, our analysis revealed a surprisingly low level of occurrence of the term "sustainable development". The term is only mentioned twice in the Americas declaration, and not at all in the other declarations. The third development-related concept, "capacity building," was used only twice in the Americas declaration and once in the Asia declaration.

Along with development, one of the distinctive features of the WSIS is the multistakeholder approach. The WSIS was conceived as a summit of the future, which would introduce some new elements into multilateral diplomacy. The main innovation is the intensive involvement of civil society and the private sector in the negotiation process. This intention to make the WSIS different from previous summits was clearly expressed in the first regional declaration for Africa. The term "civil society" was used 29 times in the Africa declaration, although its occurrence dropped significantly to 3 - 4 uses in each of the subsequent regional documents. This drop may be due to the fact that after the African Regional Meeting in Bamako in May 2002, the First Preparatory Committee for the WSIS, in Geneva, June 2002, dealt concretely with the procedural issues and possibilities for the active participation of civil society. It proved impossible to reach a consensus among national states, and civil society was provided with a more limited role than originally intended. Thus, the high hopes of a procedural breakthrough expressed in Bamako in May 2002 encountered the reality of multilateral diplomacy one month later at the first Preparatory Committee in Geneva.

Even the title for the WSIS was subject to controversy. While the term "information society" encompasses changes in modern society provoked by information and communications technologies, the most important and recognisable aspect of these changes is the Internet itself. The choice of focus on the "information society" or on the "Internet" reflects different approaches to the regulation of ICT-related issues on the global level. Developed countries, mainly the United States, tried to reduce references to the Internet and to negotiate based on the more vague concept of the information society. One reason for this approach was their reluctance to see a change in the current form of Internet governance, centred around ICANN. On the other hand, the main players from the developing world, including India, China and Brasil, insisted on the specific inclusion of Internet governance in the WSIS negotiations. These conflicting approaches created a significant impasse in the final phases of the WSIS negotiations. Frequency counts of these two terms ("information society" and "Internet") in the regional declarations clearly show the interplay between these two approaches and dynamics in negotiation. The general pattern is frequent use of the term information society (20-40 occurrences per declaration) and rare use of the term Internet (0-3 per declaration). The only exception is the Western Asia declaration which uses the term "Internet" 13 times and the term "information society" 14 times.

It is also interesting to observe the introduction and gradual imposition of the prefix "e-" in the WSIS terminology. Two other frequently used prefixes are "cyber-" and "virtual-". The prefix "e-" was used only once in the Africa declaration (May 2002). It became established as a prefix through the European declaration (November 2002) in order to describe "e-commerce", "e-health", "e-learning", etc. The frequency of the prefix "e-" in the European declaration may be linked to its frequent use in the ICT-related initiatives of the European Union. After that, the prefix "e-" was frequently used in all three following declarations (Asia, Americas and Western Asia) and in the Final Declaration. The dominance of the use of the prefix "e-" compared to "cyber-" and "virtual-" becomes apparent when the 84 statements delivered by national representatives at the WSIS are analysed. "E-" occurs 74 times in comparison with "cyber" (16 times) and "virtual" (9 times).

Our final reflections on the language of the WSIS are related to analysis of prevailing rhetorical patterns, which identify the "spirit" of the document. Through an analysis of the type of language used, certain patterns emerge: activity, optimism, certainty, realism and commonality. All of the regional WSIS declarations display a high level of activity and optimism, while the level of realism is very low. Realism, as a rhetorical pattern, is identified through the use of precise text and the presence of specific concepts. One document which displays a high level of realism when analysed in this manner is the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). It is considered one of the most applied and observed international treaties.

One objective of the analysis of rhetorical patterns was to discover how different regional/national, professional and organisational cultures influenced the frameset of the WSIS documents. The preliminary findings show relatively little difference among the regional declarations in terms of prevailing rhetorical patterns. However, some minor differences exist in document form and language style (number of words, length of paragraph and sentences, etc.). When it comes to professional culture, the predominant approach is non-technical. The last cultural aspect examined was the influence of institutional culture. Communications studies explain that institutions develop a particular communication style including specific framesets, terminology and concepts. The fact that the WSIS was organised in the context of the UN is shown clearly in the language used, and the high degree of similarity between WSIS documents and other UN documents.

Diplo's planned upcoming research will focus on various aspects of intercultural communication, with the objective of identifying the level of shared meaning among different national, professional and organisational cultures regarding key WSIS concepts such as Internet governance, digital divide, and universal access. The Geneva summit already showed signs of a low level of shared understanding, especially when it comes to key concepts such as "Internet governance". For example, the term "governance" was used in a variety of ways, ranging from a synonym for government, to its original meaning: organising and managing processes. Achieving a level of shared meaning may be the key to success for the WSIS and similar negotiations in the future.

Jovan Kurbalija
Director of DiploFoundation
C/o Graduate Institute of International Studies
132 Rue de Lausanne
1202 Geneve, Switzerland
Lecturer in Diplomacy and Internet Governance,
University of Malta