New version of 'old' diplomacy

As societies evolve so does the politics and the way diplomacy is conducted.
But the key feature of diplomacy remains exactly the same throughout the history, namely the management of relation between states. Certainly modern is a lot more complex compared to the old, high political issues concerned diplomacy. But is inevitable to argue the current relevance of the old diplomacy is still very much intact.
In the current era of rapid globalization, the technological revolution has become a tool towards greater success of the diplomatic process. And thanks to that, it proves mush easier for diplomats to exchange information via telephone, internet, and virtual conferences without the need of physically coming together. But this, on the other hand, rises the question whether the tools of globalization actually tend to undermine the role of the old diplomatic institutions such as embassies. Many would agree with this statement but diplomats themselves support the opposite view. His Excellency Mr. Per Augustsson, Deputy Chief of Mission in the embassy of Sweden, stated ‘if you want to negotiate with a state, you need to physically be based in the country itself, and have specific knowledge of the political and social life of this particular state’. He also underlined the changing nature of modern diplomat’s job description as they tend to get increasingly involved not only in dealing with foreign policy but also soft politic issues, such as trade, development and tourism.
Other important issue in the subject of diplomacy is the relation between ‘open’ and ‘secret’ way of conducting diplomacy. Although the ‘new’ diplomacy is widely associated with openness and transparency, many diplomatic activities are still often conducted in secret way and on bilateral ‘old’ diplomacy bases and they are mainly in regards of high political issues, such as state security matters. In some other aspects, such as environmental, trade and finance issues, multilateralism has increasingly developed conference agreement framework. In this sense is inevitable to mention the increasing role of NGOs.
Yet again, the question of how new is the ‘new’ diplomacy, still remains open.