Aspects of New Diplomacy

The international political system, of the post cold war era created a process that breed a new form of diplomacy that challenges the conception of national sovereignty together with the structures of traditional diplomacy. Unlike traditional diplomacy, it needs to be emphasized that this new form of diplomacy emerged out, but not moulded from the development of a sovereign state, instead, it can be argued that the forces of globalisation induced new diplomatic structures that invaded the principles of a sovereign state to set the rules of its economical and political systems, to determine the behaviours of its own people, and the structures of its foreign policy. Although the old diplomatic structures are still withstanding in the new global political system – the strength of their role has been weakened by unconventional new diplomatic conduct of non-state actors to the point of the inquest of their relevancy in the modern international system.

New diplomacy of non-state actors (NGOs, Pressure groups, Multinational corporations) has bypassed the traditional state embassy and penetrated to the core areas of bilateral and multilateral negotiations between states on the range of international issues such as; cultural, environmental, trade, financial, security, humanitarian and human rights. Globalisation created a global nomadic lifestyle for international citizens in searching for; advanced knowledge, business opportunities, settlements, attractions and employment. The advancement in technology has allowed information to be transmitted faster to the international public making it insignificant for citizen to contact their embassies for information of a foreign country. Embassies are no longer the sole distributors of foreign information. For example, Google map technology - allows potential visitors to view the geographical location of the destination in another country. Diplomats of new diplomacy utilises this technology to create global network for interacting, campaigning, lobbying and negotiating about a range of international issues.