Bull-headed diplomacy in South China Sea
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News media headlines blare out, "China-US war of words escalate", and so forth.
The “Rogerian argument” is a form of conflict resolution attributed to renowned US psychologist Carl Rogers. In a nutshell, one side must state the other’s side of the dispute until the other side agrees that the first side has stated it correctly – and then vice versa for the second side. From there, a genuine resolution can be found.
In Thailand, for instance, the current government might state the news media’s side of the argument until the media agree that it is correct, and then the media might state the government’s side until the government agrees that it is correct.
Communicating only through news headlines (as with a bullhorn) has to stop. A bullhorn is for “the bull in a china shop”.
Guy Baker
