Why Is Diplomacy Important In Global Politics

I believe that the practice of diplomacy is extremely important to global politics. As demonstrated by the Sharp article, diplomacy has been relevant before the existence of the modern concept of the “state” and will be relevant as we move beyond the state as well. Diplomacy is important because it facilitates essential communication and cooperation between states for the purposes of peace, trade, commerce, and international goals.

In the Sharp article, I thought it was interesting that Sharp demonstrated that there were different lenses in which to view diplomacy. Going by a quick Google search, I can already see that Professor Sharp’s academic focus is primarily on diplomacy. I liked that he mentioned the “stateized” version of diplomacy

I thought that this article was really clever in breaking down the duty of a diplomat into three social roles. However, I am not completely convinced by the Cornut’s statement about how diplomats are primarily knowledge producers. Given that diplomats are often more educated and well-travelled than ordinary citizens (Cornut, 393), I do not believe that they fully immerse themselves or are even able to fully immerse themselves in the local culture due to the lack of time, the public’s view of them as outsiders, and conflicting interests. I feel like diplomats are also restrained by their other roles from being the most effective knowledge producer they can be. Through factors such as groupthink and national interests, they need to express and represent the interests of the country they were appointed by and they are often wary about expressing dissenting views that will cause conflict. As a result, information, such as about possible revolts, can slip through the cracks and there is often conflict between the three roles. In addition, as I read about how very few diplomats actively monitored local social media (Cornut, 397), I thought about how diplomats can actually use technology and social media as a useful tool in helping them fulfill their roles. I believe that social media is such an important tool in getting a feel for the general positions and feelings of the public. In history, there have been times, such as during the protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, where public unrest have been expressed very publicly on social media to a point where revolts and protests were actually organized publicly using social media platforms such as Facebook. Furthermore, this part of the reading made me thinking about last week, which was Week 4: Technology, and how governments use bans and media blackouts to prevent their citizens