Old and New

Diplomacy is a practice that has existed for centuries, going back to the time of the Ancient Greeks, Chinese and many other great civilisations. Although today diplomats are being used for the purpose of delegating trade, financial and security among states either in line with wars such as the War against Terror was one such event where delegates from USA and United Kingdom sat down and discussed ways in solving the issues of terror.
Just as Greeks, which were continuously at war with its neighbours were resorted to send delegates with gifts to please the Kings in pursuing them either follow the Greeks or to go to war. Even to this day these ancient systems are still practiced by states either to gain alliances or to have support in the international community.
Modern day diplomacy does not differ to what was practiced when the United Nations were established in post WW II. Most states rallied behind United States with the hope of gaining support and the backing from them as one of the most powerful states. Today although various states gather around various states for different reasons and through diplomacy most states get to succeed in going forward with their own agendas. As Micheal Saward the author of ‘Must democrats be environmentalist?’ in the book by Democracy and green political thought: sustainability, rights, and citizenship By Brian Doherty, Marius de Geus notes that states will do what is best for the citizens.
Compared to past diplomacy takes on a different agenda where states are focused more on power and economic gains rather than benefitting one another through a mutual understanding. For most states common binding reasons such as poverty, terrorism and so on allows them to form a diplomatic connection that allows the common states to share and support one another just as such in regional organisations like EU, Asean and NATO. As diplomacy on a state backed method of allowing states to promote themselves and also negotiate and bargain with other states, the power struggle continues to play an important role.
New diplomacy focused on more graver and vital issues that was need to be discussed such as Human Rights, labour laws and the environment. Powerful states neglected the responsibility of looking after their planet, as the ‘New Diplomacy’ took a close a look at these issues while creating a new generation of issues for governments to ponder over. The transition from diplomacy to new diplomacy was not that drastic change although with globalisation most issues have taken a new perspective.
In the past, states would be more anxious to over look other states actions and to persuading states on matters such as human rights. Even though states are still bound between the rights of individual states while major catastrophes such as genocide in Rwanda occurred unnoticed. A diplomatic approach is the first approach to be looked in to by states and secondly comes war for all these people are required who makes the state their priority while avoiding catastrophes such as wars.