Högskolan i Skövde

Abstract: This article examines the Diplomatic Dimension of Nation building in Eritrea in light of the diplomatic vision adopted in 1994 by the so called the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ). Both secondary and primary data are used to write this article. The primary data is collected through telephone interviews, personal interviews, skype-interviews and focus-group discussions with some veteran liberation fighters, former government officials, diplomats and some Eritreans who were holding key positions in the government and who have experience and knowledge as to how the narcissists and psychopaths deal with the neighboring countries and regional as well as international cooperation and relationships. The main findings show that the leadership has committed a diplomatic, moral and ethical blunder scoring one of its main failures in the diplomatic dimension of nation building. This is due to the fact that it has applied a militarist and one man owned, designed, decided and mismanaged diplomatic relationships which is not at all co-operative, although it claims that it applies a healthy neighborly, regional and international cooperation and relationships as stipulated in the diplomatic vision. Moreover, the dysfunctional militarist and one man owned, designed, decided and miss managed relationships and diplomatic approach is not properly planned and it is poorly coordinated and terribly mismanaged. This reality has a serious negative consequence on the diplomatic, economic, social, cultural, organizational and political conditions of the country. The other finding of this study is that the reason why the failed, i.e. narcissistic and psychopathic leadership applies a militarist and one man owned diplomatic relationships model is because it clearly understands that to maintain and strengthen its political, economic, cultural, organizational and social power i.e. power of all aspects it has to have a full control of all the diplomatic, economic, financial and human resources in the country. The reason why the psychopaths spear headed by the self-appointed destructive dictator do not implement the diplomatic vision is because like all the other visions envisaged in the 1994 charter, the diplomatic vision was not designed to be implemented but to help the dictator to get enough time to create the conditions necessary to implement the hidden vision which the Eritrean people couldn’t yet design appropriate strategies to fight it adequately and to dismantle its power apparatus. The last reason for the failure of the diplomatic dimension of nation building is the lack of a competent and authentic leadership that possesses the qualities of an effective, legacy building and developmental leadership.