Bilahari Kausikan: On Keeping Perspective in Volatile Geopolitical Times

In Geopolitics, Journalists Should Focus on Processes, Not Just Winners and Losers Former Diplomat Bilahari Kausikan advised journalists to understand the roots of geopolitical volatility, versus over-amplifying breaking news events, to tell the full story of international trade. by Kevin Johnson, National Press Foundation SINGAPORE — At its core, journalism is about gathering information, often about major events, and finding meaning in the moment to further the public good. Yet in an increasingly volatile, geopolitical world, Bilahari Kausikan said there is great risk in overreacting to the spectacle while overlooking the events leading to it. “I have been getting more and more concerned about how news is presented,” said Kausikan, former permanent secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Whether you are a government official or… a journalist or an academic, I see certain confusions in the analysis of geopolitics, which I think is beginning to concern me.” In a wide-ranging discussion with journalists during the National Press Foundation’s International Reporting Fellowship, the longtime diplomat urged reporters to go beyond the immediate news of the day to examine the root causes — from war to political turmoil. “One of the very important mistakes people make in looking at geopolitics, particularly in times of volatility, is to…pay too much attention to events and not enough attention to the processes out of which all events arise. They don’t… come out of nothing and that leads to a loss of perspective and that loss of perspective actually adds to the volatility we are all experiencing.” “If you have no perspective, the odds are you’re either going to overreact or underreact to events… and that cycle of responses adds to the volatility.” Whether as reporters or governments responding to conflict or international unrest, Kausikan said the default position for many is to view developments in a “binary way.” “The temptation is always to ask who won or who lost any particular point of time,” Kausikan said. “And that’s not an invalid way of looking at things, but it’s a rather simplistic way of looking at things because most things, as I said, are processes. And to my mind, it is very seldom it makes much sense to ask at any point of a process who won or who lost, because the next point your conclusion may be reversed.” “In any case, the choices for countries are very seldom only binary. Sometimes they are, but very seldom.” The plainspoken diplomat underscored the view, referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s stirring Jan. 20 rebuke of coercive superpower economic policy and a “rupture” of international order while urging middle power countries to unite. While the prime minister’s speech did not specifically mention President Donald Trump and the punitive tariff regime pursued by the U.S. administration, Carney’s words sent a strong message to Canada’s strongest ally and were celebrated with a standing ovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and in subsequent press accounts. Kausikan urged journalists, however, to consider the complex nature of international relations. “His mistake was to assume that his idea of international order would necessarily be shared by everybody as if it was like the law of gravity,” Kausikan said. “You don’t have a choice about whether you want to believe the law of gravity or not, but you do have a choice about whether you want to believe in international order. “And the kind of American-led liberal international order whose passing he was lamenting was never accepted even at its height by every country in the world. In fact, I would say a rough estimate, half of the world did not accept it or accepted it only in part. And in fact, even those who accepted it often had different interpretation of what it meant.” Speaker: Bilahari Kausikan, Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore This fellowship is part of an ongoing program of journalism training and awards for trade coverage sponsored by the Hinrich Foundation. The National Press Foundation is solely responsible for the content. Resources and transcripts are available to journalists worldwide. This video was produced within the Evelyn Y. Davis studios.