Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in International Affairs  1. Discuss the evolution of diplomacy as a privileged profession with unique exemptions and immunities. It has been argued that modern communications make the contemporary job of a diplomat obsolete. Do you agree? Why or why not? The inception of diplomacy was as a result of nations and their rulerships feeling the desire to pass information to each other reliably (Guy 391). As a profession, diplomacy gained recognition when the Treaty of Westphalia was enacted in 17 th century (Guy 392). After the Second World War, diplomacy received a slightly different meaning particularly in the light of the Cold War and in the 1980s it metamorphosed as a result of improved communication channels to take a different form altogether. Diplomacy is a privileged profession especially because of the sovereign immunity begets it is allowed. This is what is commonly referred to as diplomatic immunity. Diplomatic immunity is a particular type of legal agreement between states to guarantee protection to diplomats. These legal provisions also state that diplomats are not subject to prosecution while residing in a foreign country. The laws of diplomacy were initially created in order to guide relations between nations particularly when either one or both countries are going through difficulties including events like armed conflict. The diplomat in a given country acts as a direct representative of the president or king of his country. The diplomatic (sometime sovereign) immunity clause was inserted to ensure that these diplomats are able to handle their duties with the utmost effectiveness and nations were made to understand that these provisions will be reciprocated for their diplomats elsewhere. The exemptions and immunities are only unique to diplomats. Modern communication by and large makes the contemporary work of a diplomat obsolete. This is especially because of the emergence of technological inceptions that have made it easy for heads of state or other senior governments to hold discussions without having to step out of their countries or without the need of an intermediary. For instance it is in the pubic knowledge that newly-elect United States president Barrack Obama has made telephone calls to heads of countries such as the prime minister of Kenya just to ensure that the relationship between the two countries is well respected. The rapid popularity of teleconferencing is also contributing to the decline in importance of diplomats. Citing, the United States president again, we have seen him offer contributions to meetings happening in other nations from the oval office via satellite. These are sometimes messages that in the past would have been delivered by the U.S ambassador residing in the particular country in which the meeting/conference was being held. The media has also played a crucial in ensuring that the way heads of state communicate with each other changes. The evolvement of the freedom of speech laws have given the media unprecedented leeway to publish and broadcast what they feel like irrespective of how offensive it may be to other nations. This has seen the media actively take up the role of social commentary with key figures of state con