My understanding of diplomacy today

First of all, considering my previous limited understanding of diplomacy, I would not say that my opinion has changed but rather that I gained some knowledge, which has allowed me to choose where to stand, for example, on the importance of diplomacy in today’s international system. I have learnt of differences that I was not previously aware about the traditional and the new diplomacy; From that I concluded, there is no such a distinctive line separating them apart; I do not agree that a new type of diplomacy has emerged after the first World War but rather that diplomacy has evolved due the pressure of modernization; old practices was forced to adjust the demands coming not only from a complex, interconnected and modernised world but also from a better engaged public and the propagation of new participants. Let’s just consider the challenges for the diplomatic corps that the bombardment of information coming from the new global communication infrastructure of the Internet (CNN) represents. As pointed by Madeleine Albright, “large numbers of information systems make diplomacy much harder to carry on,” Everybody wants an answer as faster as they got the information. The problem with this is that the foreign office usually does not have enough time to digest the information and give an accurate position on the matter.

Nonetheless, acknowledging changes do not imply that the traditional system has disappeared or that became irrelevant. On the contrary, thanks to globalisation, the importance of consular services abroad has been enhanced. Embassies assistance to their nationals on foreign countries is area, for example, that is not given enough consideration. Furthermore, representation is crucial to have your views put across and states that cannot afford it usually are left behind in international negotiations. The same can be said about diplomatic strategies of bilateral and multilateral modes of engagement. Multilateralism has become increasingly important and complex, but bilateralism remains significant, and in many contexts they interact. Bilateral negotiation within EU countries is still widely practiced. So one does not need to be opted out in favour of the other, in many circunstances, they are intertwined.