My understanding of diplomacy today

At the beginning of the module my idea about diplomacy practice was quite general and thus unclear. Throughout the semester I gained more detailed knowledge which helped me to better understand techniques and ways of conduct by which diplomacy is done.
I could see diplomacy being applied on different issues in situations that happen to occur in politics with various outcomes and certainly with a differing affectivity reached.
On the lectures there were explained two types of diplomacy – bilateral and multilateral, each of them using their own tools in order to reach the desired agreement. The module also showed me many ways of conduct like for example conference diplomacy or more unique ways such as secret or crisis diplomacy and I learnt the fact they all can be used depending on the circumstances in any area – environment, trade, security etc. Because the information was very up to date one was given a chance to recognize new trends like multilayered, secondtrack, niche or preventive practices.
It is basically a tool that can be used both directly and indirectly. Directly in a sense of arbitration and indirectly for instance by developing global or regional rules for government.
Another phenomenon discussed that sought to provide a better overview of the whole issue was the question who everybody does participate in negotiating. Here not only sovereign nation states are included but also non-governmental organizations, agencies of the UN, other international institutions and groupings, not forgetting about important individuals who thanks to either their personality or power of persuasion have been able to ease steps towards some agreements.
Diplomacy can be universally used and being adapted in order to make the best out of a particular situation. It is undoubtedly flexible as it is changing its practices throughout times and it reacts on the technology and communications developments. The good examples would be shuttle or virtual diplomacy.
Having chosen this module my impressions changed thanks to the possibility to learn both about essential facts as well as about unique details which together form the art of the subject.