Analysis of Zimbabwe’s Diplomatic Communication Strategies from 1980-2008

ABSTRACT

This dissertation makes an assessment of Zimbabwe’s Diplomatic Communication

Strategies and analyse the impact exerted by these strategies on the political, social and

economic welfare of the country.Over the years diplomacy has been regarded as a less

important aspect of a country’s development since the way states and their subjects

communicates to the outside world have been trivialised and thus side-lining the power of

actions and the spoken word. Zimbabwe among other 3rd world countries have implored

actions of subordination and use of derogatory terms to muscle out competition and to keep

external influence at a distance in the country’s internal affairs. Thus the research seek to

understand how these actions have directly or indirectly contributed to the failure of

Zimbabwe’s diplomatic relations at local, regional and international level. The power

struggle that have been in existence in Zimbabwe since 1980 have greatly contributed to the

division of the country’s policies between the EAST and the WEST, thus ushering in an

ideological warfare of communism versus capitalism and the means of communication

adopted influenced the origins, nature and impact of domestic and foreignpolicies adopted by

Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2008. The dissertation presents a platform for intense

understanding of how actions (Signals) and spoken word (Verbal Communication) influence

the direction of a country’s international relations through analysing its domestic and

foreign policies. However Diplomatic Communication also dwells much on Written

Communication which will be explained in brief even though not the principal component of

the research. The dissertation deliberately side-lines written communication since it has

been treated as a sensitive field thus due to fear of information scarcity the dissertation

concentrate on Signals and Verbal Communication as components of the study. It is through

this research that recommendations on how to improve diplomatic relations through proper

and acceptable communication strategies are proffered. The paper makes wide ranging use

of newspaper evidence, parliamentary debates, oral evidence, speeches and observations.

Thus dwelling much on secondary data.