My understanding of diplomacy today

The new diplomacy module has offered me a deeper understanding of the process of diplomacy. I cannot say that my opinions have radically changed, but I have got a chance to better understand, how it really works and I can better support my arguments. I can now give much more evidence about what I say. I have learnt some important historical facts about how the diplomacy has developed and got a chance to make a comparison between the old and new diplomacy. I have also realized how the public diplomacy is important and how it is used by states and all its limitations and advantages. I have realized some new facts about the embassies in foreign countries and mainly how those embassies work. It was very helpful to talk about all actors that act in the diplomatic process and how significant they are or eventually are not. I have recognized how particular actors in states’ governments are important in negotiating, for instance, the prime minister can sometimes overcome the foreign minister in negotiating and even negotiate without the foreign minister knowing about it. It is also related to secrecy in the diplomacy and that states are not like one unit, but there are many parts and departments in states that can even negotiate on their own.

My understanding of diplomacy today

I have recently listened to a podcast of Professor Brian Hocking from 2009 delivered in the Governance and International Relations Research Seminar Series at London Metropolitan University in which he stated that “the essence of diplomacy is communications”. At the beginning of the module my view about the discipline was concentrated on the relations among states and their skills of negotiation.


Ten weeks later, my scope of view broadened including non-state actors taking part in the negotiations and in this way multiplying the number of people involved in the discipline. Not only their number increased but also the matters diplomacy is concerned with- the “globalization” of the trade, the widening scope of environmental disasters spreading beyond state borders, and the disrespect of human rights by numerous governments. With the democratization of the state system and the freedom of expression the expectation for openness of the international diplomatic relations was and still is just ostensibly true. Nevertheless, the citizens find another way of participating indirectly in the profession of diplomacy- through membership in non-governmental organizations, signing petitions or moratoriums etc.
Now, my opinion expanded to that

Diplomacy did not lose its essence; it won complexity of matters and actors cooperating and integrating themselves into the discipline.
Pictures borrowed from:
• www.blogs.worldbank.org/governance/page?page=1
• www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/shaking-hands.jpg

My understandings of diplomacy today

Looking back to my first impression of Diplomacy it gives a different view of your understand of diplomacy. Diplomacy has embraced different styles of diplomacy form the European style, the American revolutionary style and the third world styles which gives the great importance were and how is the diplomacy, with new factors involved. Form traditional diplomacy that attributes his negotiations, protocols and secrecy to a more modern diplomacy open so to speak diplomacy which involve tackling more now a days issues, such as security, military controls and environmental. The changes varied from states as no longer the main actors, more participation from international organisations and the non-actors engagements helped to change the nature of the diplomacy. The new development of diplomacy brings the public diplomacy, the Internet, World Wide Web all are involved in process of diplomacy. Nevertheless diplomacy is involvement that links countries into low politics in order for the self benefit of their own countries and exercises the culture and policies to a neighbour country it also exercise the negotiations that involve with abroad embassies, diplomats meetings, summitry, trade and bilateral. Today with more involvement with non-actors and non organisations (NGOs) involvements helps to expand the diplomacy agenda to tackle poverty and developments from developing countries. Diplomacy is a good method for forming alliances with countries in order to help the development of a particular governments or country , the public diplomacy as well cultural collaborations, the creations of embassies especial from third world countries, the in or out of people around the world it all contribute for the diplomacy to be more efficient and right because is still long way and still lots of issues that many ambassadors should tackle(health, poverty ,stopping the hard power usage) we just have to wait and see is ,it is the beginner of things that is what I understand what diplomacy is.

Changes in my way of understanding "New Diplomacy"

During those few months of studying the "new diplomacy" my view on the topic did not change too much. My first idea about what is new in diplomacy was creating new ways of creating and mainaining relations between states. The process of globalization made it easier to communicate and commute, technological development allowed politicians to attend conferences virtually, via telephone or videocameras. What was not surprising for me as well was the change within the international relation's system, specifically that "states were no longer the only actors involved" (Baylis and Smith 2005:390). Numbers speak for themselves: 1909 - 176 NGOs, 1954 - 1255 NGOs, 2007 - 27723 NGOs ( Kegley 2009:190). NGOs play a very important part in negotiations, they are able to influence states and other NGOs. What is more, after the period of Cold War and bilateral world, there came a time for more participants to take part in diplomacy processes. That is why the phenomenon of multilateral diplomacy was a thing that must have occured in order to restore balance in the world. Although I might have surmised what the "new" diplomacy is about, but it would not be so clear without attending this module, which gave me a wider look at the diplomacy.

Sources:
Kegley, Ch (2009) World Politics. Trend and Transformation, Cengage
Baylis, J and Smith, S (2005) The Globalization of the World Politics. An Introduction to International Relations, Oxford University Press

My understanding of diplomacy today

Looking back at what I had written at the beginning of this module regarding what I considered that diplomacy was, I have now discovered that I had a very narrow-minded view of the subject. For me it was about the relationships and communications between states, and how to improve these by having embassies. My understanding was also that it was mainly bilateral and concerning high politics, and that secrecy was more common than not. I did not realize the amount of issues that diplomacy actually covers; not only security and crisis management, but also the environment, trade, development, etc. I have learned more about the history of diplomacy and the evolution towards new ways of conducting it, as well as about the importance of public diplomacy in today’s international arena. Globalization, new technologies and more media coverage have all contributed to this change in how diplomacy is practiced. I still believe that there is some “old” diplomacy being used in certain situations; however it would be difficult to solve today’s main issues without the multilateral communications and negotiations. The participation of the NGOs in diplomatic processes has also made me realize that it is not only government officials that can be involved in diplomatic negotiations nowadays, which is a positive thing as it enables important subjects to be put high on the agenda, which they otherwise probably wouldn’t have been. My knowledge of this subject has certainly improved as I know understand how broad it actually is.

My understanding of diplomacy today.

My understanding of diplomacy today.



I would not say that, my understanding of diplomacy or my opinions about the role of diplomacy have changed much. I still do think – as I did when I wrote a short paper at the beginning of the term – that the role of diplomacy in its broad sense, is to negotiate; construct alliances, treaties and agreements and through those to maintain interactions among states and more importantly through the art of conducting international relations build up inter-state relationships and maintain the peace by political instruments.
But I must (gladly) admit that, my knowledge broadened up immensely, it is much deeper and complex after the completing the New Diplomacy module. My comprehension and intellectual grasp of the subject of diplomacy is indisputably enriched and improved. Thanks to the New Diplomacy module, I have gained awareness of many different categories and disciplines of diplomacy, which I have not been aware of before. I was enlightened by the module on the subject-matter of the origins and evolution of diplomacy, theoretical aspect of the discipline and patterns of diplomacy in a globalised world.

How has my opinion about the role of diplomacy in world politics changed since the start of the module?

My opinion about the role of diplomacy in world politics has changed completely. First of all, I would never say that we can date the origin of diplomacy so far. Second of all, I am impressed by the power of public diplomacy in world politics, as well as how strong the role diplomacy itself possesses in the international arena. Thanks to the New Diplomacy module, I released how important the roles of embassies and ambassadors are, and how full of secrecy the diplomatic world is. My knowledge of this subject has developed widely. I really learned many new and very interesting things.