Padrão de Resposta

Diplomacy is the art of fomenting relations between two different communities. Its three core functions are the tasks of representing, negotiating, and reporting. Since the end of the Cold War, diplomats have learned how to deal with the emergence of new subjects, actors, and technologies. These developments, however, did not change the essence of diplomacy. Since the late 20th century, diplomacy has adjusted to the emergence of new subjects. After the demise of the Soviet Union, diplomats had to deal less with security issues and more with new subjects, such as the environment, human rights, and trade. Politicians from the whole world gathered in Brazil to discuss sustainable development during the Rio-92 Conference. Still in the 1990s, diplomats negotiated the Declaration of Vienna on human rights. Lastly, countries created the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was responsible for fast international growth in the following decades. As Jovan Kurbalija affirmed, diplomacy was able to negotiate deals on new issues.
Since the early 21st century, diplomacy has dealt with the emergence of new actors. In environmental discussions, NGOs, such as Greenpeace, have participated in multilateral conferences. As far as human rights violations are concerned, individuals were allowed to denounce States in international courts, such as the European Court on Human Rights. As a consequence of the growth of international trade, countries started to consult their enterprises to promote domestic development. In all these cases, diplomats had to adapt the task of representing their States due to the emergence of NGOs, individuals and enterprises. As the author of the second quotation affirmed, representation is still one of diplomacy’s ultimate goals.
Since the late 20th century, diplomacy has adjusted to the development of new technologies. Diplomats had to learn how to communicate with new actors in new platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. British diplomat Tom Fletcher affirmed most countries are switching from an era of secret diplomacy to the age of public diplomacy. Today’s diplomats must be able to explain how international negotiations can change the lives of common citizens. Although this task is increasingly difficult, diplomats have been convincing others of the importance of their work since the foundation of the modern State. Moreover, the work of diplomats is being influenced by the increasing amount of information present on social media. In order to maintain their task of reporting, diplomats became specialists in distinguishing relevant information from fake news.
All things considered, the authors of the two quotations are right to affirm that the common core functions of traditional diplomacy have stood the test of time. Since the end of the 20th century, diplomats have learned to negotiate new subjects, to represent States vis-à-vis new actors, and to use new technologies to report relevant information.