However, in the 21st century, this classical script has evolved in such a manner that it has erased the lines between statecraft, media, cyberspace, economics, and even intelligence work. The diplomacy of today is working in what some scholars and those engaged in the profession are terming a hybrid system, where traditional negotiations are blending flawlessly with new technologies, digital stories, public diplomacy, and strategic economic tools. One of the beneficial frameworks to comprehend this change is the concept of soft power, the power of the state to affect others not by coercion but by attracting and persuading. The hybrid age is a blend of soft power with hard and sharp power instruments, and it forms a complex and dangerous realm of diplomatic practice.
Diplomacy of silence and closed doors is becoming exhausted by the forces of globalisation, technological development, and the new forms of crisis. Embassies and official visits in the classic sense have not vanished, but now they are merely a component of the overall engine of communication. The COVID-19 pandemic proved that it was not possible to wait weeks to arrange formal meetings in a situation where there is an urgent need to take some measures. Visiting ceremonies were replaced with video calls, online summits, and live announcements on websites such as X and Facebook. Leaders are now able to communicate in real time with their people and their adversaries, and the distinction that existed between them, between the personal and the political, has been shattered. This visibility has also made diplomacy a bit performative, where the art of controlling stories is just as important as the art of controlling space.
