Diplomacy is a wide range of activities that leaders use to advance their national interests around the world. It involves communication and negotiation, mostly involving representatives sent to foreign countries to negotiate adjustments in relations and settle quarrels without using military force. Diplomacy also includes formal negotiations between states and other international organizations. Diplomacy may be coercive, but it is typically a nonviolent tool used to promote peace and prosperity.
Diplomats are the primary–but not only–practitioners of diplomacy. Their weapons are words, backed by the power of their nation’s government. Diplomats work to understand the motivations of foreign governments and people, to shape policies and strategies for dealing with them. Diplomatic negotiations are often a combination of requests and offers, in which each side has to give up some of its demands in order to reach an agreement. Frequently, outsiders will serve as mediators for such talks.
In a broad sense, diplomacy encompasses the entire range of international relations and activities, including back-channel communications (usually between officials from rival nations), summit conferences, the international work of NGOs, parliamentary diplomacy, and the unofficial diplomatic activities of individuals. Diplomacy is often considered a subset of international law, which deals with the legal rules governing diplomatic interaction and treaty-making.
Effective diplomacy requires a high level of maturity and judgment. It’s important for leaders to avoid offending the foreign counterparts they’re trying to influence, but it’s equally important that they be able to deliver bad news or corrective feedback in ways that don’t damage their relationships with those individuals. In addition, they must be able to adapt their style and communication to the culture of their foreign counterparts. For example, British diplomats are famous for their politeness while South African diplomats are much more direct and straightforward in their communication.
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