The main aspect of New Diplomacy

Between seminars 5 and 7 we have covered three key aspects of the New Diplomacy: Public Diplomacy, emergence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as diplomats and Conference Diplomacy. It is rather difficult to decide upon the most improtant aspect of the New Diplomacy, taking into account considerable amount of impact all three have made on the conduct of diplomacy. Nevertheless, a judgement has to be made.

Rise of NGOs is certainly an important factor in the changing paradigm of diplomacy, however, not a new one, preceded by similar non-state actors the likes of Roman Catholic Church, and not the only one of its kind in the modern context, accompanied by a number of other non-state actors such as celebrity diplomats and pressure groups. As for the conference diplomacy, its emergence is certainly having a major influence on the constant reshaping of modern diplomacy by empowering the 'openness' aspect of it. Nevertheless, it can also be seen merely as the updated version of summit diplomacy, which in its term, although originating during the Second World War, coined by Winston Churchill, can be seen as an outgrowth of the late 19th/early 20th centuries Hague conferences and League of Nations meetings. Public diplomacy, on the other hand, despite possible historical links to France's efforts to promote their language and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries, largely defined in terms of a whole new way of foreign policy making and a major information and communication technological revolution, is clearly a new development in the world of diplomacy.