What in your opinion is the most important aspect of the new diplomacy? Explain your reasons.

Charles Evans Hughes made a statement that „diplomacy is an old art practiced under new conditions...“ This is very true, because the entire structure of the international system has been changing over the time. Some scholars divide diplomacy into old and new, while they define each one by different features. This blog argues that multilateral diplomacy is the most important aspect of the new diplomacy, because in a way it includes NGOs, public diplomacy, intergovernmental organizations, and few other concepts as well.

Multilateral diplomacy is mainly conducted on international conferences. Although conference diplomacy is not synonym for multilateral diplomacy, because it can be conducted only between two states. In the 19th century, the Vienna Congress could be considered as a stepping stone for a conference diplomacy because for the first time in the history, multilateral agreement was signed according to the international law. Nowadays, in the time of the new diplomacy, the conferences and multilateral diplomacy are conducted differently. The greatest expansion of the multilateral diplomacy happened in the 20th century, when the United Nations /UN/ was set up. Creation of the UN meant increase in international organizations /eg: Amnesty International/, international conferences /eg: the Tehran Conference/, and multilateral international treaties /eg: Convention on the Rights of the Child/.

Andrew Young said „the UN was not designed to be, nor is it adequate to serve as, either a law-making body for the world or a court to judge the nations of the world. It is a forum for diplomacy, and true diplomacy is the art of the dialogue in pursuit of common goals and the avoidance of war“. The UN is the multilateral fora in which all the nations are represented. Multilateral diplomacy is important because it allows even smaller nation-states to find ways how to seek their interests, national or global. Issues could be tackled better through expertise, which are resolved via NGOs, and therefore they play important role within the multilateral diplomacy. There have been questions whether the multilateral diplomacy made bilateral diplomacy to disappear, however the fact is that they co-exist along with each other. Secrecy also matters in the multilateral diplomacy, for instance the agreements made within the UN Security Council. Venue, participation, agenda, decision-making, public debate, and private discussion are issues of multilateral diplomacy defined by G. R. Berridge. However, when these issues are resolved, multilateral diplomacy can be an effective tool for solving problems caused by globalization.