Classic definitions of diplomacy refer to peaceful interactions among state actors. The rise of civil society’s participation in global governance in the 20th century is thus transformative, making diplomacy less an exclusive area than a complex network of relationships only partially controllable by traditional dip-lomats. This article aims to find patterns of the interaction between these com-paratively new actors, to define civil society and focus on its historical emerge-nce. We argue that civil society organizations are among the most important ac-tors of global diplomatic process. Their role is critical in terms for putting new issues on the agenda and shaping the ways those issues are understood, they help to implement global accords, with their wide presence and loose network-ing an asset for taking global agreements to the local level. They are less cent-ral in the classic stages of diplomatic negotiations between governmental repre-sentatives, but their strong presence transforms negotiations as well