The Champion of The ND

The Champion of The ND
    By K. S

  George Clemenceau , Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George,
at the Paris Peace Conference , 1919.

The new diplomacy appeared from the ashes of the First World War. During the WWI, the ‘old diplomacy’ suffered a huge reputation-al blow. Prime political leaders carried the belief that the war was the ultimate failure of diplomacy and the entire diplomatic occupation was accused for being unable to prevent the War and strong calls to action were heard for a fundamental revision of diplomatic practices. Major leaders also held the belief that conflict could be avoided if those ultimately responsible for making foreign policy commitments would tackle the problems in face to face meetings. The US President Woodrow Wilson towards the end of the First World War emerged as the champion of the New Diplomacy. In 1918, Wilson developed his perspective of an international order, called the Fourteen Points. Wilson’s peace plan focused on creating a League of Nations to resolve all future international conflicts. Wilson’s Points included; No secret diplomacy and secret treaties and alliances, self-determination of people, reduction of armaments and collective security and peaceful settlement of disputes. The proponents of new diplomacy also argued that foreign policy could not rely upon secrecy, they advocated instead new guiding proposals and principles of diplomatic behaviour. Wilson’s call has had an continuing impact on diplomacy and has remained manifest to the present day, by dictating that state actors engage each other in conditions of transparency and public accountability.   Wilson argued that ”Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but shall proceed always frankly and in the public view” (Wilson, 1918, quoted in Bjola and Kornprobst, 2013).

The Big Four; British Prime Minister David Lloyd George,
 Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando 
French Premier George Clemenceau and the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson

In 1919, President Wilson visited to the Paris Peace Conference to help create the Treaty of Versailles. Twenty-seven nations and met at Conference. Over 1040 representatives from 32 states and from non – state actors met in Paris to try to reach a compromise on the conditions of peace in Europe. Hundreds of professional diplomats involved, however, many observers and scholars focus on the role of ‘the Big Four”; British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando French Premier George Clemenceau and the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. When the invention of non – state actors at the Paris Peace conference was one of the key feature of new diplomacy.  Since the Paris Conference 1919, the diplomats are being overtaken by politicians, fellow civil servants, journalists, human rights defenders (NGOs) and even observers. Non – state actors become active part of the new diplomatic game and that challenges foreign services and diplomats. Hence ‘the diplomat must make himself more competitive to survive’ (Meerts, p 99, Quoted in Melissen, 1999). The diplomat will no longer be the dominant player, however, as Hocking argued ”diplomacy remains significant because its essence lies in the institution and not in the machinery; that the machinery must be important either because it continues to exist or because the institution is a basic foundation of international society” (Hocking, p 37. quoted in Melissen, 1999, p 37).

The League of Nations formed,Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919, the Treaty declared Germany and Austria were responsible for the war. Many democratic nations in Europe were created out of the empires according to Wilson’s self – determination. However, the League of Nations ceased its activities after failing to prevent the WWII.