Sunday 1 March 2009

Has traditional diplomacy been overcome by the new diplomacy?

Traditional or ‘old’ diplomacy has started long time ago as we all agreed with previously. Its institutions such as embassies are still in operation, though not as powerful as they were before but fundamental nowadays. Also, the ‘new’ diplomacy can be said to be incorporating the old and the only difference is that the previous way of undertaking the job of diplomacy has changed since the tradition was totally secret, exclusive, that is, restricted to two parties and only concerned about high politics issues.
However, one certain thing is that since the First World War, the world structure has changed and there had been widespread echoes that it must be the last. Woodrow Wilson in his 14 points’ speech believed that an international institution had to be created for the management of international relations and that would act as a devoted defender of peace and stability in World Politics. As a result, there was a sudden change of beliefs within societies that the practice of the’ Old’ diplomacy is actually what has caused the war and should be reviewed, since it was heavily based upon secrecy without any public involvement and composed of a small élite called the aristocracy.
Consequently, there was a call for a new type of diplomacy in the international arena that would be open to public scrutiny, inclusive, that is involving other actors and only concerned low politics issues, such as the economic well being and health care of their citizens for example.
This has led to the introduction of summit and conference diplomacy and then given way to many, arguing that the era of sovereign States is dead as States can no longer control capital movement, currency flows, immigration and crime and mostly the exchange of information via internet and the media. Accordingly, other actors such as the European Union and the United nations are increasingly having a powerful weight in the international scene and are needed by states to achieve such goals. Hence, one could argue that in a greater interconnected world than ever, summit and conference diplomacy are very crucial and this can be illustrated when several states along with non-governmental organisations gather to discuss environmental or economic issues as an attempt to find solutions.
Nevertheless, the ‘old’ diplomacy is still there and the extent to which the 'new' diplomacy is new is arguable. While diplomacy is more opened today, the public is expected to take an interest in foreign affairs, be aware of current issues and controversies, and make their opinions be heard through the internet or press; it can strongly be said that bilateral diplomacy and secrecy still exist as the complex negotiations between the protagonists are always kept secret and only limited to the diplomats. Finally, the traditional institutions of diplomacy such as foreign ministries, embassies etc as stated above are still in place and play an active role in diplomatic processes.
Therefore, in my opinion, stating that it has become outmoded is a really ambiguous and poor judgement.

2 comments:

  1. In my opinion Traditional Diplomacy could not be outmoded, because it is foundation of Diplomacy. World was changing through the years, leaders of the countries were changing, technologies was taking huge progress in short time period. Therefore emerged many new actors in the world which had to be dealt in different way, but old issues did not disappear and had to be dealt in traditional way. Despite the fact that emerged new organization where diplomacy is more “open” and countries leaders are meeting in one place (eg.UN), there still exists traditional diplomacy. For instance recent G20 summit in London, if you fallowed the events, you have clearly seen that leaders were visiting one another before this summit. And this is the point where is traditional diplomacy, leaders were talking privately, obviously they agreed on positions what they supporting what countries are important for them, what they want achieve from some countries. In other words they agreed all negotiations strategy who, and what kind of cards will use in different situations. After this routine, we coming to New Diplomacy more open, where everyone taking with one other, but more or less cards are discussed before the game. The other aspect is that globalization made everyone interdependent in various areas therefore after reaching agreements with your allies (traditional diplomacy), going to talk with rest of the countries (new diplomacy). Just added one extra procedure, secrecy level still high, because no one negotiating without checking positions with own allies.
    So Traditional Diplomacy still playing its role in some fields, therefore it cannot be outmoded. In some areas traditional diplomacy is not required, therefore at that point involves only new diplomacy were completely multilateral negotiations, for example environmental diplomacy in some cases could fall only in to New Diplomacy category.

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  2. Is your comment a criticism or? because I made everything clear.

    Thank you.

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