Change ? What Change..

The nature of diplomacy for me has not changed that much with regards to what diplomacy is for,the actors may have changed or should i say may have multiplied to include various organisations. I attribute this to the changing nature of politics in general, their has been a shift from high politics to low politics on the international stage and this has meant that we can see different organisations taking part in international negotiations over issues such as the environment, aid and other humanitarian concerns. However this does not constitute a change in diplomacy, but more of a shift in the issues of international political concern. When we look at history, the major issues of political concern were wars between nations, and we find that negotiation over the prevention of war were dominant in diplomacy, but after the cold war and some would say after world war two, they were a lot of issues that arose due to the end of colonialism and the fall of the USSR. These new issues did not necessarily need ambassadors to negotiate over them, but could be engaged by different actors such as NGOs and other non- state actors. For example anti- apartheid movements played a major role in applying pressure on the south Africa government to abolish apartheid. I think the changing nature of political concern has been the defining feature of diplomacy in the late 20th and early 21st century, a broad range of issues which require a broad range of actors.