International diplomats’ cultural ignorance sabotaged peace negotiations

Evidence

Both sides had mutually incompatible expectations and the international soldiers and civilians were in the main profoundly ignorant of Somali culture and local politics. Although both Sahnoun and Oakley, in their different ways, had some knowledge of local conditions and negotiated directly with leading local figures, their successors relied on indirect contacts through aides and representatives, a style of diplomacy calculated to sow suspicion in the minds of their interlocutors. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 647

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: UN diplomats’ ignorance and indirect diplomacy deepened their isolation from Somalis; Italy’s Illig treaty expectations proved thoroughly mistaken — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 222; Imperial power produces ignorance through acts of refusal to notice (+3 more)

Related

• UN diplomats’ ignorance and indirect diplomacy deepened their isolation from Somalis (similarity 0.87)
• Italy’s Illig treaty expectations proved thoroughly mistaken (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Misreading the cultural meaning of silence can cause fatal international incidents #exemplifies (0.75) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 365
• Imperial power produces ignorance through acts of refusal to notice #complicates (0.50)
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #complicates (0.45) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421