𝓓𝓲𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓼

• Diplomacy


  The patriotic art of lying for one's country
• Diplomacy


  • Spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system
  • The main instrument of foreign policy which represents the broader goals and strategies that guide a state's interactions with the rest of the world
  • Usually the result of diplomatic negotiations and processes
  • Diplomats also help shape a state by advising government officials
• Modern diplomatic methods and practices originated largely from 17th-century European culture
• Beginning in the early 20th century, diplomacy became professionalized; the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, ratified by most of the world's sovereign states, provides a framework for diplomatic procedures, methods, and conduct
• Diplomats


  • Accredited officials, such as envoys and ambassadors, who operate through diplomatic missions, most commonly consulates and embassies, and rely on a number of support staff
• Diplomat


  Sometimes applied broadly to diplomatic and consular personnel and foreign ministry officials
• Etymology of diplomacy


  Derived from the 18th-century French term 'diplomate' ('diplomat' or 'diplomatist'), based on the ancient Greek 'diploma' which roughly means 'an object folded in two'
• The term was later applied to all official documents, such as those containing agreements between governments, and thus became identified with international relations
• This established history has in recent years been criticized by scholars pointing out how the term originates in the political context of the French Revolution
• Early diplomatic records


  • The Amarna letters written between the pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt and the Amurry rulers of Canaan during the 14th Century BC
  • Peace treaties concluded between the Mesopotamian city-states of Lagash and Umma around approximately 2100 BC
  • The Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty following the Battle of Kadesh in 1214 BC
• Diplomacy in ancient Greece


  • City-states dispatched envoys to negotiate specific issues, such as war and peace or commercial relations, but did not have diplomatic representatives regularly posted in each other's territory
  • Some functions given to modern diplomatic representatives were fulfilled by a proxenos, a citizen of the host city who had friendly relations with another city, often through familial ties
• In times of peace, diplomacy was even conducted with non-Hellenistic rivals such as the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, through it was ultimately conquered by Alexander the Great of Macedon
• Alexander the Great was adept at diplomacy, realizing that the conquest of foreign cultures would be better achieved by having his Macedonian and Greek subjects intermingle and intermarry with native populations
• Diplomacy remained a necessary tool of statecraft for the great Hellenistic states that succeeded Alexander's empire, such as the Ptolemaic kingdom and Seleucid Empire, which fought several wars in the Near East and often negotiated peace treaties through marriage alliances
• Diplomacy and the Ottoman Empire

  • Relations with the Ottoman Empire were particularly important to Italian states, to which the Ottoman government was known as the Sublime Porte
  • The maritime republics of Genoa and Venice depended less and less upon their nautical capabilities, and more and more upon the perpetuation of good relations with the Ottomans
  • Interactions between various merchants, diplomats and clergymen hailing from the Italian and Ottoman empires helped inaugurate and create new forms of diplomacy and statecraft
• The primary purpose of a diplomat, which was originally a negotiator, evolved into a persona that represented an autonomous state in all aspects of political affairs
• All other sovereigns felt the need to accommodate themselves diplomatically, due to the emergence of the powerful political environment of the Ottoman Empire
• The atmosphere of diplomacy within the early modern period revolved around the foundation of conformity to Ottoman culture
• Diplomacy in East Asia


  • One of the earliest realists in international relations theory was the 6th-century BC military strategist Sun Tzu (496 BC), author of The Art of War
  • A great deal of diplomacy in establishing allies, bartering land, and signing peace treaties was necessary for each warring state, and the idealized role of the persuader/diplomat developed
  • From the Battle of Baideng (200 BC) to the Battle of Mayi (133 BC), the Han dynasty was forced to uphold a marriage alliance and pay an exorbitant amount of tribute to the powerful northern nomadic Xiongnu that had been consolidated by Modu Shanyu
  • After the Xiongnu sent word to Emperor Wen of Han (180-157 BC) that they controlled areas stretching from Manchuria to the Tarim Basin Oasis City-states, a treaty was drafted in 162 BC proclaiming that everything north of the Great Wall belong to nomads' lands, while everything south of it would be reserved for Han Chinese