Danny talks with State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns and also Ruth Wedgwood, Senior Fellow for International Organizations and Law at the Council on Foreign Relations about the importance of using the right names in political and diplomatic discusions. Wedgewood says that the use of a certain name amounts to a form of rhetorical warfare, and misnaming can be taken as an act of hostility. Burns says that communications between countries is particularly problematic for the United States because of its position of power in the world - other countries pay a lot of attention to what the U.S. says. They give several examples of controversial names including the use of the country-name "Macedonia" - the Greek government objects to a former Yugoslav republic calling itself by that name.
Copyright 1996 NPR