my understanding of diplomacy today?

My understanding of Diplomacy has changed and improved throughout the course in many ways. My first impression of diplomacy was quite traditional in a sense of ‘old diplomacy’. I connected diplomacy with Embassies, secret diplomacy and conference diplomacy, diplomacy was for me just high level politics. I have learned that diplomacy happens on multiple levels with all sorts of participants. I would never have considered celebrities as part of diplomacy. I have learned that MNC’s, NGOs play a role on different levels of diplomacy. Diplomacy is far more complex and complicated than 100 years ago and has to face more challenges than ever before.  It is going to be interesting which ways diplomacy will take in the future.

The differentiation between ‘new’ and ‘old’ diplomacy is in my opinion not really useful. The distinction between ‘old’ diplomacy and ‘new diplomacy’ is not clear, old diplomacy is still part of the so called ‘new’ diplomacy. An indicator for this is the EU. The law of the EU is made in Brussels, where all member-states have permanent representation in the COREPER. Embassies still remain in the member-states, and a transformation of their responsibilities and tasks has taken place. In some cases Embassies, especially in important cities like London, are regarded as more important than ever before. A transformation of ‘bilateral diplomacy’ has taken place in the EU. The tendency and the future transformation of diplomacy will determine the future of the EU.