Diplomacy is a complex, evolving practice that forms an integral aspect of international relations. The practice aims to implement national interests and solve disputes peacefully through negotiation, dialogue, and cooperation. It also builds trust, security, and prosperity in trade, culture, science, and other areas.
While there are numerous definitions of diplomacy, a common thread in these is that it involves a delicate process of negotiating a solution that benefits both sides. This may include offering incentives to the parties in order to facilitate a settlement. In contrast to coercive tools like kinetic war, diplomatic bargaining is reversible and can help keep the threshold of armed conflict under control.
In the early days of the modern state, diplomacy focused on bilateral relations, or negotiations between two nations. Larger states would send and receive ambassadors, while smaller nations would exchange envoys who were a rung below the ambassador (the title of which was minister plenipotentiary). Diplomats were highly respected in those days, with Genghis Khan and his hordes known to wreak horrific vengeance on any nation that violated the sanctity of a diplomat’s life or home country.
Today, diplomacy is largely about managing global affairs in ways that keep the escalation of kinetic conflict under control and aimed at political resolution rather than battlefield victory. In the United States, this is done by a cadre of professional diplomats and supporting staff at the Department of State and its embassy missions around the world.