Wikileaks and its Impact on International Relations

 The year 2010 was the most thrilling in terms of Geopolitics and international relationships, more significantly for the USA. The reason behind the excitement was yet another exciting character in the fame of Julian Assange of Wikileaks. This man almost made it to be the Time’s man of the year demanding so much attention and prominence. Wikileaks shook the diplomacy across the globe with its claim to have published the most authentic diplomatic conversations which had even exposed the true colors of power centers of US and UK. The charm and diplomacy of these powerful democracies were troubled resulting in many efforts to covering up the facts, if they are to be facts as claimed by Wikileaks.

Before anybody jumps in to the critical analysis of the Wikileaks and the political outcome of these leaks, it’s important to establish the character of the Wikileaks if they are really worth dependable. The authenticity has been claimed by the owners of Wikileaks but was never unilaterally accepted. Wikileaks doesn’t have any ruling from the court of law implying its decision based on these cables. However, in a generic sense it can be believed that the chronology of the events is well mapped to the past events. But, such timely chronology alone is not an absolute evidence to be relied upon to draw conclusions.

Should there be any analysis of the Wikileaks, its worth analyzing the international impact on relationships amongst the powerful nations. The credibility of the power centers and the game changers in the form of US and UK can be further scrutinized. Especially for the US government during the Bush establishment there seems to be a bit of embarrassment which was not confirmed by any diplomat though. The intentions of the Iraq war were made clear but the Americans would stand to the cause. The US and the UK governments’ involvement during the very past Egyptian and Libyan civil revolutions assure that the intentions are always clear with theses nations to rescue civilians and every effort would be made to establish democracy. One might argue that the command US wants to continue over the regions they rescue is not acceptable, but one should agree that the restoration is a process and the true nature of any International ambassador remains in staying through the process. This exactly was showcased in Afghanistan as the US called back the troops with time but the Taliban issues keep the US thinking about its involvement in the region.

Wilkileaks had very unique impact in the Indian politics. The cables leaked of the reports of US diplomats during the trust vote in 2009 brought back the debate of Indo – US nuclear deal. The urgency of US to ensure that the bill is passed through the Parliament raised many eyebrows. Was that a genuine interest in Indian partnership or any other business interest alone or something else was in the cards were some of the questions need to be answered by the US. At the same time the US admitting ISI as a hard core terrorist group as leaked which was reassuring to India that the Americans were clear about the role of Pakistan’s ISI in terrorism. With all these controversial outcomes Wikileakes could not really impact any relationship amongst the major and significant global economies but they may well be a wakeup call to be cautious when display diplomacy.