The Wireless Diplomacy

The technological innovation proliferates at phenomenal speed with its provision of an advanced virtual infrastructure of information and has thus dramatically transformed the way in which we interact. Consequently, the nature of diplomacy has been compelled to adopt new approaches to the issues that are no longer settled with excellent oratorical skills but which require multilateral cooperation and constant exchange of intelligence.
The enormous flow of information has allowed a rise of increasing public awareness of diplomatic procedures. While technology has facilitated diplomatic activity the media and the public opinion have increasing influence on political decision making and tends to result in political panic attacks since thorough deliberation and strategy development are limited due to external pressure for rapid but sustainable conflict resolution.
A hectic diplomatic timetable substitutes administrative routines and customary procedures. With international organizations follow intricate stressful agendas permitting few errors given that global issues affect and interfere with national politics.
However, technology has equally accelerated diplomatic activity given that distances are virtually shorter and thus maximizing the enablement of international institutions and permitting shuffle diplomacy to ensure efficient exchange of intelligence and that decision-making meets deadlines. Technology and consequently globalization has equally seen a rise in influential non governmental organizations, transnational relations and private businesses which have become additional actors in international affairs, consequently changing the nature of diplomacy as it is no longer an exclusively governmental discipline (Ivor Roberts, Satow‘s Diplomatic Practice, 20-21)

Alongside its role as the major distributor of information and connectedness the internet has additionally provided a forum for terrorism which poses a great threat to international security in contemporary society. With the emergence of such complex networks diplomatic relations face great challenges calling for concerted action against international threats.
Common to an array of today’s political headaches like terrorism and global warming are the inability to naturally link them to a specific state and thereby they require an approach different from the habits that hampered efficiency in the old diplomacy.
To combat such problems multilateral cooperation has become a crucial necessity as to creating a framework that enables worldwide alliances despite cultural differences. Geographical distances are virtually blurry which cast the foundation of both bilateral and multilateral platforms (Suzanne Nossel, Smart Power, Foreign Affairs).

The primary difference that occurs in the nature of diplomacy is the globalization of increasing interdependence that the international society is experiencing with concomitant intertwined and fluctuating economies, expanded security agendas with time constraining the diplomatic latitude. All which suggest pushing the stand-by button of national interests combined with an extended embracement of international concerns.
The United States, with the superpower status it has acquired, has grown particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks considering its expanding reliance on technical equipment and should pay considerable attention to the transformed characteristics of warfare, shifting its focus from conventional methods to virtual strategies to defeat cyber warriors (James Adams, Virtual Defence, Foreign Affairs).

In the jumble of wireless connections, publicity propaganda, and online foreign policy, diplomatic activity is perhaps facing the greatest challenges of all in its long history. Long gone are the wooden wagons and time consuming processes as head phones meet the Concorde only leaving limited time for thorough considerations. The nature of diplomacy is now promoted to a new global level where decisions are made on the basis of quick briefings but their influence more dominant than ever.
Society is rapidly adjusting to a digital world- the nature of diplomacy must do the same.


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