Brian White on diplomacy.

Brian White raises some interesting and balanced points in his chapter on diplomacy. He describes diplomacy as being a process of communication between states and international actors. His piece begins by discussing the difficulty in defining diplomacy due to its differing meanings to different groups. In terms of the development of diplomacy, the most important point he makes is the change from the old style of diplomacy to the new diplomacy. White then suggests that this came about through the failure of traditional diplomacy to stop the First World War from happening. He advocates that there were two important features of the new diplomacy: 1) that diplomacy should be more open with the detail and deals made public. 2) the idea that an international organisation should be created to act as a forum and as a deterrence. These ideas laid the foundations for the way in which diplomacy is carried out today.

Other significant developments have to include the emergence of trans-national actors, forcing states to interact with them leading to greater participation in diplomacy, instead of states being the only players on the world stage. Diplomacy was becoming ever more inclusive.
White also suggests that as the Cold War developed, diplomacy spread to include states of former colonial powers, whom the superpowers were intent on extending their influence to. The Cold War era also highlighted the use of diplomacy to prevent a "global nuclear conflict". An extension of this can be seen today with the global war on terror whereby states, in particular America, are using their diplomatic power to persuade other states to fight terrorists on their own soil.

Above all, Whites text shows that diplomacy is a constantly evolving and expanding process, which has and will continue to be a vital political tool on the world stage.