by: G. R. Berridge & Alan James

Peaceful contacts between independent groups have always, since the start of human time, required the kind of representational activity which has come to be known as diplomacy. In its modern form – that is, throughout the last halfmillennium or so – diplomacy has retained a broadly constant character and given rise to a burgeoning diplomatic profession. Like all professions, it has spawned its own terminology and categories; and inasmuch as its activity  concerned relations between proud and jealous sovereigns, later replaced by no less proud and jealous sovereign states, diplomatic language has been finely honed and carries very precise meanings. It also bears the marks of having found expression in the languages of civilizations beyond those of the West.
Furthermore – and again accentuated by the very sensitive nature of this particular representational task – issues of protocol and precedence have been of considerable significance, and have made their distinctive contribution to
diplomatic terms. Thus it occasions no surprise at all that diplomacy has, over the centuries, developed a lexicon of specialized words and of other technical usages which it necessarily employs. And as diplomats routinely deal not just
with matters of policy but also with the many legal issues which arise between states, these aspects of their work have also made their marks in the diplomatic vocabulary.