The role of diplomacy has undergone tremendous changes in recent times with the emergence of new issues and new challenges in the new world order. This is nothing but natural, as such changes add dynamism to the evolution of diplomacy over time. Nations around the world today, thus, are bound to mould their diplomatic machinery to render it capable enough to address emerging issues and challenges of divergent natures and make diplomacy more relevant than before.

Today’s diplomacy cannot be satiated with its traditional strategic roles of protection of national sovereignty, territorial integrity, maintenance of peace and economic gains alone. Nor can it be content with its other prominent roles of representation of the country in the international arena, promotion of national interest, strengthening of political, cultural, scientific and technological cooperation, mediation, communication and negotiation. It has with it so many new issues and challenges born out of the progress in human civilisation, including scientific, technological and ecological evolution. 

The ratcheting up of the roles of diplomacy in today’s world of information and communication revolution, galloping globalisation and the growing role of the public, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society in the formulation of foreign policy as well as peacemaking has further enhanced the relevance of diplomacy, not diminished as viewed from some quarters.

Diplomacy today has to be able to tackle all the evolving issues and challenges facing it in efficient ways. Non-state actors have become serious challenges. They are tapping public support where the state has not been effective or proactive. The issue of human rights protection has come to the forefront in the parlance of international relations, quite often determining the contours of inter-state relations. Cross-border trafficking of persons and smuggling of arms are other issues that draw the attention of states. Negotiations and agreements demand involvement of diplomacy to resolve the problem of this ilk. Conflicts and tensions generated by the issues of ethnicity and cultural differences have been posing serious challenges. Unilateralist tendencies of global powers often puts diplomacy in a difficult position. Economic disparity, vitiated by the global economic meltdown and crisis of food and energy, has emerged as new challenges facing diplomats.

Global environmental degradation and slow progress on the commitment to environmental safety, including internationally agreed agreements and protocols, is an issue confronting diplomacy. Management of disasters of unprecedented nature such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricane Katrina and others demands consolidated efforts from nations around the globe beyond the politics of boundary. It is the diplomats who have to be at the forefront of the management of such disasters most of the time. The involvement of diplomats also becomes important in transnational, across-the-border problems of diverse natures.

The growth of information technology and the media has provided the public with greater access to information regarding activities of the state unlike before. The role of the media has been increasing in an unprecedented way. In case diplomacy fails in tapping information in time, the media will do it in its own way.

The forces of globalisation have been eroding national boundaries and changing the contours of diplomacy. Group interests of NGOs and civil society that gained significant space in the 1990s in track-one diplomacy have emerged in diplomacy of late. An example is the protest against WTO processes by NGOs and civil society at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999. The boundaries of diplomacy are changing along with the involvement of NGOs and civil society in government decision making.

Since the very beginning of economic history, economic interests have been catalytic in overriding others in determining relations among nations. The influence of businesspeople and multinational corporations (MNCs) is increasing in the globalised world on account of their global networks across borders. The Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development and the Johannesburg Conference for Global Sustainability are some of the examples. The role of transnational corporations in track-one international relations has expanded. Making the role of the state more effective in securing economic interests along with the support of business people and multinational companies has become an important aspect of diplomacy. The term “economic diplomacy” has become a buzzword now.

Recent trends lean towards public diplomacy, making diplomacy more open, people-centred and people-participatory. Through public diplomacy, the state has engaged not only other states but also other actors such as NGOs, private citizens, foreign audiences and the media. People are getting a stake at the centre stage of formulating foreign policy as they are wielding greater influence, especially in a democratic set-up of government. Domestication of foreign policy has become necessary as the state has to receive the support of its people while making its foreign policy.

Multi-track diplomacy has become an important feature of international relations. Other than the track-one diplomacy of state-to-state activities and the track-two diplomacy of unofficial government diplomatic efforts as well as groups and individuals that work closely with government diplomats, the track-three diplomacy between persons and organisations who work on a people-to-people basis including NGOs, the media and business is gaining currency. This has changed the methods of diplomacy in a fruitious way.

In view of the emerging issues and challenges facing it, today’s diplomacy has to reinvent itself to address them as demanded by time. On the one hand, it has to protect national sovereignty and independence, and on the other, it has to open national boundaries to the forces of globalisation. While keeping sensitive issues within the state itself, diplomacy has also to be accommodative to opening space for the media in a world marked with freedom, democracy, openness, transparency and good governance. Thus, the challenge before the diplomats is also to filtering information coming from different sources. No less important is the significant growth of the means and methods of communication today and their impact on the functioning of diplomats, as they have required diplomats to be adaptive to modern technology and means of communication or risk becoming ineffective.

Along with the growth of democratic governments around the world, the role of the public in foreign policy formulation has increased since such governments are based on popular support. Public diplomacy has become a cynosure of the day. Diplomats today can make persons and organisations in the private sector important partners of fulfilling their responsibilities in order to give track-three diplomacy a stake in dealing with various conflicts and problems. In some situations, a more informal method, style and functioning of diplomacy is required to meet the desired objectives.

Diplomacy, like foreign policy, has to change in tune with time. Global problems of various kinds, changes in international relations and emerging issues of international importance all have rendered the job of diplomacy more challenging than before. The way nations whet their diplomatic machinery besides strengthening institutions and making their foreign service personnel professionally competitive and intellectually sound with more dynamism, innovativeness and responsiveness to change will directly affect the efficacy of diplomacy to meet its new responsibilities. Moreover, novel thinking, fitting policies and pragmatic strategies are required to gain maximum benefits from diplomatic conduct in the new global ambience.

ybhamal@hotmail.com

(The author is minister counsellor, Embassy of Nepal, New Delhi)

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