Brian White on diplomacy: Having read White’s chapter for seminar 2, what are the most important issues he raises concerning the nature and developmen

White stresses that the practice of diplomacy as a process of communications has existed between political entities for thousands of years. However modern diplomacy stemmed from the creation of the international European community in the 17th century. The significant change was the process of communications between recognisable sovereign nation-states, allowing politics to be ‘detached’ from religion. He also emphasises how the process of diplomacy has continued to evolve and retransform it self to the ever changing nature of the international system. For instance he states that the aftermath of WWI, led to the development of an intergovernmental organisation (the League of Nations, later the UN), with the intention of preventing another world war. The organisation was set up as a forum for peaceful settlements of disagreements and as a deterrent against another war. He does note that it was for this reason where the belief of a new diplomacy arose from, a common hope for a new start. The aftermath of WWI led the development of non state actors and its role in influencing states in order to achieve their goals. The diplomatic agenda continued to expand increasingly with highly specialised issues, for instance global warming, organisations with expertise in the field would make it its objective to shape governments outcomes with regards to environmental issues. He also focused on the changing structure of diplomacy. The current growing interdependence of states, due to the processes of globalisation has led to what some may consider as ‘global’ diplomacy, in order to combat issues that concern the welfare of the majority of the world. Finally White maintains, that although the international system has proved to become increasingly interdependent, the state continues to be a significant diplomatic player, suggesting that diplomatic agencies are still the preserve of states and intergovernmental relations.