Diplomacy got its roots from what is presently the French language, with its activities dating beyond the past two millennia. With the first Foreign Ministry created in Paris France, other European countries saw the importance of their own countries being represented in foreign land. This would therefore drive these states to change their general rule of law from being absolute monarchs to constitutional ones, which allowed for the provision of foreign representation. By the end of the 19th century, most countries that had taken up democratic rule of law had already adopted diplomatic relations with other countries, having diplomats set in place to represent the country in foreign soil.
Diplomacy apparently comes with unique packages. With the obvious being hefty payment packages and allowances, diplomats get the privilege of interacting with high ranking officials and leaders of both the country they represent and with the country they are sent to. In most cases, they get exemptions from taxes and therefore live a luxurious life in and outside the country of representation. In an example, the foreign service of the USA interacts with the running government of the State, and with the existing consulates. Another privilege of working as a diplomat is the fact that one the opportunity to choose what line of work among five that he is best suited at. These range from public interests to economics to different management tasks and to politics.
The Foreign Service also is the negotiating team for the home country when it comes to tasks such as procuring deals between companies in the foreign country and ones own country. There are more than enough advantages of having to be the one who to do such a task. As much as there is a load of responsibility attached to diplomacy, the people who are satisfied with such tasks as these find it quite satisfying to have a look at their own country from an outside point of view and trying to convince foreigners concerning particular interests according to the kind of representation the mother country expects.
Critics are arguing that diplomacy is fast becoming an irrelevant, wasteful use of taxpayers’ money by the government, and that the funds could find some other better use. Presidential Candidate Ross Perot argued that in the olden days, ones embassy would speak for them but now, at the times when communication has been made easier through technological advancement, there is no need of having a consulate in place in other countries. Nevertheless, a diplomats attempt to counter such arguments suggest that as much as media coverage effectively convey messages from foreign countries, the same cannot take up tasks such as intervention by diplomatic institutes to restore democracy in war torn countries like Somalia.
In essence, I tend to think that even if technological advancement has lightened the burden and opened up the world to our very own, diplomatic intervention is more effective while being done face-to-face. This means that teams still need to be sent to foreign lands in order to accomplish such important objectives.