DIPLOMACY DEFINED
Or the many aspects of diplomacy

1. Diplomacy is the means by which states peacefully adjust their quarrels and quell their controversies

2. Diplomacy should aim, not at incidental or opportunist arrangements, but at creating solid and durable relations

3. Diplomacy is the best thing which civilization has yet throught of for preventing force alone from governing the relations of states

4. Diplomacy and defense are not substitutes for one another. Either alone would fail

5. Diplomacy must be judged by what it prevents, not only by what it achieves

6. Diplomacy mediates not between right and wrong but between conflicting interests. It seeks to compromise not between legal equitiesbut between national aspirations

7. Diplomacy is the art of lubricating the wheels of international relations

8. If politics is the art of the possible, diplomacy is the art of taking the possible beyond its local dimensions

9. Diplomacy is the art of resolving international difficulties peacefully. It is also a technique which reigns over the development, in a harmonious manner, of international relations

10. The best diplomacy is that which gets its own way, but leaves the other side reasonably satisfied. It is often good diplomacy to resist a score

11. Diplomacy: to know the intentions of one's neighbor, to defeat his hostile designs, to form alliances with his enemies, to steal his friends,and to prevent his union with others

12. The practice of diplomacy is not in fact very different from the practice of sound business, in that it relies for its efficacy upon the establishment of confidence and credit

13. Diplomacy is too important a subject to be left to blundering amaturism including political appointees

14. The purpose of diplomacy is not to outwit the other side or party but to engae it in a web of common interests, thereby serving the interets of one's own nation

15. Given even ordinary ability and powers of observation, the person on the spot (the diplomat) is likely to be much wiser than the bureaucrats of the Foreign Offices ... swayed very often by partisanship or public opinion at home

16. Diplomacy calls for gifts or skills that are as seemingly incongruous as cynicism and courtesy, sophistication and sincerity, and decisiveness and patience

17. Much it not most of the work of the diplomat is done in secrecy leaving but a trail of obscurity

18. Diplomacy is above all a combination of protocol and alcohol, often to be complemented with geritol

19. Even the most painful situations need to be dealt with by civility and politeness

20. Diplomacy calls for tact, perseverance and unshaken optimism

back