Contemporary Diplomatic Challenges - Essay Example

? THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE THOUGHT OF THE PAST AND PRSENT DIPLOMATIC PRACTITIONERS HELP INFORM CONTEMPORARY DIPLOMATIC CHALLENGES Date: Following the end of the Cold War, a growing number of professional researchers have come up to show their embrace and concern to diplomacy as an important tool in facilitating international relations. Nevertheless, in comparison with several other related fields, the diplomacy concept has not received profound study and attention as required. Before making an analysis on the importance of traditional and current diplomatic practitioners to the future democracy, it is important we comprehend cogently the meaning as well as the concept of diplomacy. Diplomacy refers to as a positive value concept that encompasses a given set of skills. It also encompasses certain preferred ways of doing or approaching issues at the international, national as well as sub-national levels. In terms of community building and conflict resolution, it is one of the most preferred approaches to political issues even to ones that are purely domestic in nature (Berridge & Keens, 2004, p78). In summary, diplomacy refers to the art and practice of carrying out talks and negotiations among representatives of different states or individuals. It is the conduct of carrying out international talks for understandings on various subjects such as trade using the intercession of professional personalities referred to as diplomats. In the social comprehension or explanation, diplomacy is defined as the application of tact in gaining strategic advantage and reaches a mutually acceptable solution to a specific problem affecting two or more nations. This essay will employ the analysis of traditional and modern diplomatic practitioners, their ideologies and usefulness in the future societies in the world. In the traditional concepts, diplomacy was conducted by government officials in respective countries. The officials were mostly diplomats who did the negotiation of trades policies, treaties, as well as other useful international agreements. The process of negotiation in the traditional diplomacy ranged from informal to the very formal steps. However, it was fairly competitive and adversarial and relied on the positional and distributive bargaining strategies and assuming the win-loss situations. The goal of international diplomacy in peace keeping is maintaining power over weaker nations. It also aims at the maintenance of power balance between countries of equal status (Berridge & Keens, 2004, p78). Despite the fact that several conflict resolution theorists have come up and developed multifaceted comprehension of power, diplomacy still assert on the concept that power is a zero sum commodity, thus when a person has more, the other has less. This concept and understanding of power in the traditional society has indeed led to the encouragement of positional bargaining rather than the common cooperative and integrative approach. Positional bargaining, in the current society, is necessary as it ensures that one nation has led a lot of peace promotion methods in several nations (Moore, 2008, p143). Despite being ruled out by some critics as an inappropriate step aimed at helping two different parties reaches an agreement over a given issue, proponents argue that it is one of the most appropriate methods of negotiation. This is because the issue of interest is to reach an agreement just like the buyer and the seller. The buyer’s interest is to acquire the product in a relatively cheap price whereas the seller’s aim is to get the maximum product from the sale of a product. That is the interest or aim of the two is simply a common price. Considering this concept, it is succinct that this concept of diplomacy will be of great use for the future diplomacy if taken seriously and professionally by diplomats. Another importance of traditional diplomacy that will be of great use in the future is its formality and protocol oriented in nature. These features were used to show the goodwill gestures during negotiations. The reason behind this was because of the less exposure that existed between the two negotiating groups and it was conducted precisely on a given common agenda. The two parties always acted as representations of separate territories and their laws (Philips, 2008, p89). They had no mandate to challenge them except through wars and aggressions. The traditional diplomacy, observed, directly acted as a representation to nation states and will always remain viable and evolve more in multilateral environments. The countries will also group and form various coalitions based on common interest existence. In general, the coalitions will mainly be based on a common global agenda which will be set on the floors and forums of international organizations. Grouping of nations and coming up with coalitions is one method of forming and international agreement useful for peace promotion. It is also important for conducting welfares such as sports among the nations thus promoting talent discovery and rewards. This will be of great importance to the well being of the national economy of the respective states. Traditional and modern diplomacy practitioners are of great importance to the global policy milieu when the processes involved are constantly re-evaluated and reviewed. Reviewing and reevaluation of the diplomacy processes involve nations coming up with ways and means on how to make their integration better for the good of the individual citizens and national growth. Modern diplomatic practitioners have managed to reduce the cases of insecurity resulting from terrorism attacks. It has also led to the reduction of nuclear weapon fear by most nations, US included. This hyas been possible due to the existing unique coordination and understanding among various diplomats in different countries. The coordination of diplomacy also referred to as “operation other than war has become of greatest importance due to the changes of problems that confront world’s most powerful leaders (Philips, 2008, p86). With the existence of already established international treaties and integrations, this is a promise that the future world would be much better in terms of understanding the problems that normally arise and hinder international cooperation and understanding (Huffman, 2000, p104). Reduction of peace and terrorism activities promises an environment that is necessary for conducting any business activity. With no peace, investors will definitely shy away from investing as the risk will be too obvious and certain. This is important in boosting the world’s future economy and wealth distribution. The UK, US, and Canada have currently stepped up to understand the respect for diplomacy and its necessity in its government system. This has acted as an example to other nations to understand the need for integration among them (Imre, 1998, p124). Ensuing of the Cold War era left the diplomacy of the US almost frozen vis-a-vis principal adversaries. It later developed an active and large diplomatic military and practitioner establishment as section of its great hegemonic superpower roles. The development provided the necessary platform for the thriving of diplomatic relations between America and the related countries. Modern diplomatic practitioners have also have also been seen in areas such as cities where state officials have shown increasing trend of negotiations with other countries for the purpose of gaining the benefits of international relations. Besides the above, the existence of modern diplomatic practitioners has proven that diplomacy is a professional practice that requires academic intellectuals. It utilizes philosophy, elements of communication skills and other ingredients and factors of agreements. This has led to the foundation of courses related to diplomacy in various matriculation institutions. Causes like communication and international relations are nowadays common in most institutions of higher learning. They equip learners with the necessary and relevant skills for the practice of diplomacy and achieving the status of being professional diplomats. This is a good sign for the progress of the countries where the courses are offered. Such a nation will undoubtedly have stronghold in its bargaining power when it comes to international agreement or diplomatic meetings. This implies that success of a nation in international integration depends a lot on the efficiency and skills of the negotiating members. Without the challenges faced by modern diplomacy practitioners, it would not have been possible to identify their shortcomings and come up with a proposal to encourage the learning and teaching of diplomacy related courses in diplomacy. Universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, University of Manchester, Yale and Harvard have courses that are aimed at bettering the integration of different nations across the world. Other universities in various countries such as China, Korea, Canada, Australia and South Africa also have their education system including international relations as a faculty studied by undergraduate and postgraduate students. Current diplomatic practitioners have also shown some aspects of international solidarity. This has mainly been used to offer resolution to short term crises, for instance support of the civil society over time in certain nations like Ukraine has contributed to the finding of resolutions to problems that were short term in nature. The problems included internal and domestic actions which were mainly from different individuals expressing their desire for democratic rights in the European nation. There were boycotts, demonstrations as well as other forms of civil resistances. Inside reformers and insists usually seek for necessary inspirations from the models from other societies. They also take counsel and advice from comparable prior learning experiences by other many reformers, most of whom are recent diplomats. After all, the introduction of serious diplomacy integrated in the 20th century following the end of the Second World War, end of dictatorship in Greece, Spain and Portugal decolonization. Another example of internal conflicts that have resulted to the seeking of several diplomats aimed at bringing tranquility. Following these, there were several technocrats who were brought with an aim of lowering the tension and helping people to understand the role of each other in the society. Such histories and scenario based examples have been used as case studies and analysis by students studying diplomacy related courses. They help them in comprehending the functions of diplomats in problem solving situations. They also do help them in the critical stage of making proper decisions on how to react to the whole matter or problem. Therefore, traditional diplomatic practitioners are still of great importance to the modern societies when it comes to peaceful and productive coexistence between nations, and individuals as well. There are also other important diplomatic practitioners that are of much help to the future societies of the world. For instance, the diplomats or the workers of the United Nations (UN) are of much help to those who will join careers related to their career paths. The kind of professionalism, skills, commitment, and passion of the workers is a typical example or role model to other aspirant diplomats. The existences of current diplomats settling disputes between nations that do not agree in principles are of great necessity as they will probably yield fruits in the future. An example is the existing enmity between the US and the Middle Eastern countries such as Pakistan and Iraq. The dispute has been brought about by the Second World War and the Cold War. The US also lack some relationship and integration with other Arab nations even in Africa, for instance, Somalia. With the current or contemporary diplomatic practitioners, all will be positive and the long enmity between the west and the east will one day end. Ending the war between the two groups will indeed lead to a boost of economic and social integration in the entire world. The fear of the Middle East will be done away with and the members within the region will be able to participate in trade with other nations in the West. Trade is one important aspect of the economy. It enables a country to dispose excess of its produce at relatively higher prices compared to that at the local markets. It also enables the country to earn foreign exchange, another crucial aspect to any developing economy. No country in the world can survive in its own. Every nation requires the service of another in order to maintain and satisfy the requirements and needs of its people. Trade is an economical pivot to every country. It brings in what the country never produces and gives out what the country produces but never uses exhaustively. In order for trade to thrive, there must be peace. Peace is brought about by international integration and understanding between the two nations. This, thus calls for the need for diplomacy. The past and the present diplomatic practitioners have mainly set examples to future practitioners as well as promised the world that peaceful integration between warring nations is underway. References Berridge, c.& Keens, O., 2004. 'Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger. London: London University Press. Huffman, J. 2000, The Social politics of Medieval Diplomacy Anglo-German Relations (1066 1307). Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press. Imre, S, 1998, Hungary, Past and Present embracing its history from the Magyar conquest to the present time, with the sketch of the Hungarian literature. Manchester: University of Manchester publishers. Moore, J,2008. Effects of past and present Day Diplomacy and Economic Policies on the Future of United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University. Philips, D, 2008, Unsilencing the past track two diplomacy and the Turkish American Reconciliation. London: Routledge publishers. Read More