New Diplomacy Is A Mix Of Old & New

'Old' diplomacy still has contemporary relevance and it will continue to have relevance to some extent in the foreseeable future.

The new diplomacy is not all completely new. It may have developed some features that may be considered to be radically different than old diplomacy. But it can be argued that some of the old features still exist in contemporary diplomacy today. John Baylis and Steve Smith provided a very useful comparative analysis of structure and process of old and new diplomacy to clarify this matter in the book 'The Globalisation of World Politics'.

While David Barash and Charles Webel described in their book 'Peace and Conflict Studies' a new form of diplomacy (Track ll diplomacy) that can be argued to be a combination of old and new diplomacy. Track ll diplomacy maintains secrecy and sometimes it also can be considered to be high politics as this form of diplomacy are sometimes employed by the Heads of states. These are argued to be the characteristics of old diplomacy. Yet Track ll diplomacy can be argued to be more as multilateral than bilateral because people are brought together, typically in the presence of an experienced third party or facilitator.

One of the examples of successful Track ll diplomacy occurred during Camp David meeting in the late 1970s. Former United State President Jimmy Carter facilitated about 13 days long meeting between Israel's Prime Minister and the President of Egypt at the time. Notably the meeting took place without any formalities, protocols or rigid negotiations. Neither there was any formal agenda for meeting nor presence of any press. Just as the meeting was about to end in failure because Israel's Prime Minister refused to agree or sign any deal, a breakthrough occurred. President Carter autographed some photos for the grandchildren of Israel's Prime Minister. Carter Personalised his autographs and dedicated photos to each grandchild by name. President Carter explained in his own words what happened next as following:

"I handed him the photographs. He took them and thanked me. Then he happened to look down and saw his granddaughter's name on the top one. He spoke it aloud and then looked at each photograph individually, repeating the name of grandchild I had written on it. His lips trembled and tears welled up in his eyes. He told me a little about each child and especially about one who seemed to be his favourite. We were both emotional as we talked quietly for a few moments about grandchildren and about war." (Barash and Webel, 2002, p279)

Later Israel's Prime Minister agreed to sign a deal that he earlier refused and the Camp David meeting that was feared to be failing ended in success and mutual agreement.