My views on the role of diplomacy in world politics have not changed significantly, but instead it was enriched as I gained more knowledge regarding to the subject itself. Where before I used to relate the notion of diplomacy with the need to merely maintain good relations with other nation- states in order to prevent war and other conflicts, and to promote each other cultures and costumes. I now acknowledged that it touches on various issues from wars, security, and trade to environmental problems or even poverty. This module presented me with not just a much broader and complex form of relation between nation- states, but also with a very much strong relation between other entities such as the NGOs and many individuals.
There has been a point where it became a bit confusing as I was trying to establish whether there are two variables of the notion of diplomacy or not (“Old” diplomacy and “New” diplomacy), but it became clear as the course went on that diplomacy is only one but it has being adapted over the time and still is. And to back up my view I looked at the work of Brian Whites and agreed with him in many of his views; he reached a point where he said that the main ideas behind diplomacy are still identical being the most noticeable alterations from bilateral to multilateral diplomacy, and the formation of diplomacy as a specific profession; meaning that diplomacy itself suffered many adaptations, this due to the way world politics is being shaped as well, it gained new apparatus which facilitated its evolution; for example: technology which is the main apparatus that transformed diplomacy - if before there was the need for diplomats to travel for hours to meet and negotiate, today it became much easier with the use of internet and computers, airplanes and many other gadgets (shuttle diplomacy term mentioned by the former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger). But we can never take away the need for us to have as a diplomatic service the embassies; because they play a big role in it all, embassies exist to represent individuals of a specific country which are abroad. In a case of needing political representation, consulate service or dealing with visas these entities are the best alternative.
To summarise all of my views expressed here together, it is more than appropriate to state that diplomacy is here to stay once more, whether good or bad in some ways, pleasing some and not others it will still play one of the central objectives of the international politics which is to maintain good relations among all the nation- states regardless of differences and disputes.
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Hi Adriana,
ReplyDeleteYour views on diplomacy reflect the need to continue to have diplomats around the world to maintain relations between states. There will be always bilateralDiplomacy 'Old Diplomacy' as a mean to for states to interact between each other and also deffend the interest of its citizens in the host state. Multilateral Diplomacy 'New Diplomacy', however it is multilateral, has not come to replace the old one. They work in parallel with each other, some times without any conflicts. For example if we look at the European Union, every mamber state, apart from being represented in the EU, has also, diplomats in other EU capital.
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ReplyDeleteAs Adriana points out above, today the importance of bilateral diplomacy still persists, just as we observed for the context of the EU. Regardless of the growing European integration, traditional structure of bilateral diplomatic relations among EU member states still remains intact. Permanent missions and residential diplomat’s roles are being maintained as well as renewed in manners that run in parallel with already active traditions and conventions within the diplomatic organizational field.
ReplyDeleteThe process of European integration is marked by a growing interconnectedness of domestic administrative systems of member states where sector-specific policies are coordinated across national borders without involving the diplomats (Egeberg, 2001).
As Bátora indicates, the continual bilateral relations within the EU involves the development of ‘intra-European mode of diplomacy’, which implies a different sets of standards of appropriateness of member state’s relations to their fellow member state’s within the EU, as well as, a new set of aptness in regards to EU member states and their dealings with third states (non-Eu member state countries).