My understanding of diplomacy today

Have your opinions about the role of diplomacy in world politics changed since the start of the module? Looking back on the ‘first impressions’ you wrote in the first lecture, how has your knowledge of this subject improved?

My perception of the term diplomacy has expanded during this course. When I look back I mostly think I understood the term as old diplomacy, or at least that it was closely linked to the work of embassies and official diplomats. Though in my first day letter I did note that NGO's, like the Red Cross, negotiating with states must be a part of new diplomacy. However, I guessed that changes in diplomacy mostly had been due to theoretical progress and not so much to do with technological progresses and with globalism. As we heard at the Danish embassy there is a move from geo-political oriented diplomacy to a more issue based diplomacy. Today I see that there are several different areas of diplomacy, like trade and environmental diplomacy, and that there has been a change in the last century from bilateral to almost polylateral, but even though old diplomacy is still at work among the new ways.