People’s perception of a country is one of the more important things in diplomacy. In high politics, the perception of being powerful enough to do what YOU want to do, is what deters other countries from taking advantage of you, fearing retaliation. In diplomatic networking, the perception that a particular person is a ‘do-er’ rather than just a ‘talker’ will result in people gravitating towards the person. Never mind if the perception is not real – it is always the high probability of it that allows influence to be wielded and people to be swayed.

For many years during the Cold War the two superpowers – the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) danced around each other. The main reason why war did not break out during those 44 years was because neither one was prepared to push the other into a corner and found out how effective the retaliation would be. The perception that if one side made a move that would be construed to be aggressive, the other side would retaliate in kind, and then all hell would break loose. And because neither side really knew where the tipping point of the other’s tolerance was, they tread gingerly around each other (the ‘dance’).

Perception is important because in the individual context, it makes a person more important they might be. For a diplomat, this is imperative. It will ensure that you are invited to all the right functions, all the right meetings, and all the right places. This will give the diplomat the chance to pick up tidbits of information that may make the difference between real and perceived.

The Ukraine-Russia war of 2022 is a classic example of perception, and assumptions. The might of NATO as a military alliance cannot be denied, and this is where Ukraine erred – perceiving that Russia would not dare to overrun a country that was closely allied to NATO. NATO, on its part, seems to be doing the right thing by not taking part directly in the war, because of their perception (rightly or wrongly) that the Russian leader could be pushed too far and would then use the weapons of mass destruction that it has, be they chemical or nuclear.

No matter how morbid or unfortunately all of this may seem, the fact that there is still the perception that Russia might use its nuclear arsenal has thus far stopped World War III from occurring. Things would have been a whole lot different had the it been a country without weapons of mass destruction. Negotiations would not still be relied upon to end the war, and diplomacy would have no place in the equation. This is why perception, no matter how flawed, is still an important aspect of diplomacy.