Important elements in the New Diplomacy

Soft power?

The increasing use of soft power. Joseph Nye explains soft power as the ability to affect others so you get the particular outcomes you want, without using coercion, threath or payments. The point is to make your views, or methods, or ideas attractive to others. Nye argues there has been an increase of use of soft power; and a change of view that power do not lie mainly in armies but in values. The approach is rather to use mutual respect to try to influence people in other countries, or in the domestic field, so people hopefully will be more likely to embrace the new values when they are not seen as a threath but rather as an improvement. Nye also introduced a concept; “smart power”, refering to a combination of hard and soft power. Soft power also matters in relationships between state actors – in three major types; culture such as arts, literature, movies and music, values such as and policies. Soft power could be imposed on people of a nation through the use of public diplomacy, sometimes called propaganda.

The increase of non-governmental actors in international affairs. Even if government are still the main actors, they are not the only bodies operating on the international stage. Non-governmental organization have become important global actors. They have both resources and knowledge to pressure for their interests, and attract people over borders to unite and struggle for the same purpose. The definition of an NGO is an organization independent from the government control, that is to say independent from one state in particular. Non-governmental actors refers to a more broad range of actors, also including criminal and profit-making ones such as terrorist groups and big corporations. I believe NGOs is an important part of the new global civil society, acting together in accord for issues such as human rights, global justice and for saving the planet from a climate disaster.

Increase use of multilateral diplomacy. We live in an age of globalization, and more actors are and states are involved concurrently in negotiations and international talks. The increasing number of actors contributed to the development of a multilateral and more complex style of diplomacy. Today, more conventions and summits are held with invited guests from all over the world, from states, NGOs and MNCs. Economic networks have also grew, broadening the diplomatic field. Additionally, technological advancements have made it easier to communicate transfer data between countries. For example, it is common that some participants only attend through webcam.

The New Diplomacy is also characterized by less secrecy. Public scrutiny and control are applauded as important elements in making the diplomatic process legitimate. The NGOs tried to influence the the inter-state activity to push for their interests. It was more difficult to hold the negotiations secret with so many actors involved, so the new diplomacy thus became a more open process easier to scrutinize.

The New style of diplomacy also brought on a focus on new issues in diplomatic relations, such as social, economic and welfare issues, sometimes called 'low politics'. The new diplomatic agenda reflected a new society with more wider but specialized interests.

http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/p.willetts/CS-NTWKS/NGO-ART.HTM

http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/index.php?Soft-Power-Explained