Whither diplomatic history? an early modern historian's perspective.

Early modernists have been among the most early and active contributors to the establishment of New Diplomatic History. How has their work affected that on other periods, and how might it continue to do so? How have such extensive histories written during the past decade reframed a wider understanding of the European state system that did so much to establish modern diplomacy? And how might such an understanding be relevant to modern, even contemporary, historians, as well as to other scholars