Old Diplomacy and contemporary relevance

Does ‘old’ diplomacy have any contemporary relevance?

So long as we have nation-states we will continue to have Diplomacy, because it facilitates states to interact on political, economical and social issues. The 18th and 19th century characteristics of old diplomacy continue to be applied within contemporary society.

States have maintained their embassies and resident diplomats abroad. Although financially costly, embassies have remained relevant for several reasons. For example, they provide timely and accurate information on local matters, to their home ministries. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office cannot solely rely on information that is provided by foreign states or journalist because such information may be subjected to censorship. Also, the role of embassies has broadened to include administration of visa and travel documentation processing for local residents. Embassies provide tourist advice to their visiting nationals and they can liaise with local officials when problems arise.

A core element of traditional diplomacy is bilateral negotiations. Bilateral diplomacy remains active and key for securing meaningful agreements between two states. Recent bilateral agreements between Sri Lanka and the Ukraine, strengthening their military ties and a similar agreement between the USA and Montenegro illustrates the continued importance of bilateral diplomacy.

The traditional practice of conducting negotiations in secrecy still prevails. ‘If interested parties are aware of what is being negotiated, they might well be able, and would certainly try, to sabotage the talks’ (Berridge, 4th edt, p105). Within contemporary society, secret negotiations are routinely conducted on neutral territory. Like the recent Israeli and Turkish talks which took place in Brussels in July 2010 as a result of Israel’s naval raid on Turkish ships in the Gaza strip (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10471551). Secret diplomacy is particularly important in helping to maintain world peace.

A conventional feature of diplomacy is diplomatic protocols. Whilst some may argue that the pageantry of formal ceremonies, diplomatic ranking and precedence at events, privileges and immunity, is no longer conducive to modern society, they continue to be strictly adhered to by all states, thus providing consistency within the diplomatic community. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 (http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf)
and The Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964 http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&PageNumber=0&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=1233500&ActiveTextDocId=1233502&filesize=24448 reinforces the importance of diplomatic protocols within contemporary society.

Conventional diplomatic issues of preventing wars and maintaining peace remains as relevant today as it did in previous centuries. Although, the threat of war between states has significantly reduced, attacks and acts of aggression inflicted by dissident groups are the ‘new war’ being fought by states with the aid of traditional mechanism and processes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3FtHZwzZo&feature=related discusses the current violent capabilities of one dissident group.

As with old diplomacy, reinforcing and promoting national interests abroad is still important. Whilst traditional trade diplomacy, was used to influence the outcome of negotiations and secure and strengthen alliances, it is now coupled with commercial diplomacy (which involves the use of diplomatic resources to secure business opportunities in the host nation for small to medium enterprises at home) as states seek to expand their exports markets within host nations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Wq71iuuOo&feature=related is a Bloomberg TV interview with Suresh Kumar on USA-India trade & commercial diplomacy.

The above illustrates that overall the original structure, processes and agenda issues of old diplomacy has continued to survive in modern society, and they also accommodate contemporary issues. Hence, old diplomacy has contemporary relevance.