The dictionary definition of diplomacy is ?the art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations,? and ?skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility.? Reaching back into antiquity, diplomacy involved mediation, or managing relationships with ?another? (?enemy? or not). It was only with the modern state system, dating from the 16th century that diplomacy took on its more narrow contemporary meaning: managing foreign state affairs at government level.

The world political and social environment over the past five years has been gradually working free of many of the hierarchical constraints of bloc politics that bound it for 45 years. Values that were not open to question earlier are again on the table. Issues such as economic aid, market access, refugee flows and humanitarian intervention have risen in importance and taken on new dimensions.

Other changes in the world have also expanded the scope for diplomacy beyond the traditional western perspective which evolved over the past 300 years. The gradual metamorphosis and weakening of the concept of the state, political and economic interdependence and interpenetration, the emergence of multinational (corporate, political and nongovernmental) and subnational (cities, states and provinces) actors, and emergent cultural clashes have not only complicated analysis and removed old guideposts, but opened the way to expand our understanding of what diplomacy means and how it can be practised.

Diplomacy has also spread to sub-national level. In an era where officials and private citizens increasingly and routinely negotiate with foreigners, they use ?diplomacy,? much like the gentleman who did not realize he was speaking prose until one of his literary friends enlightened him. Many techniques of diplomacy are familiar to experienced negotiators and, recently, a sizeable literature on negotiation has emerged.

For diplomacy to remain an important and effective tool of statecraft and increase its potential for conflict reduction, it needs to be recast. It must be expanded intellectually and philosophically to take account of altered circumstance and related intellectual developments so that its practitioners can broaden the scope for diplomatic action.

Diplomacy as behavior, a system of approaching issues and problems, offers less fanatic and lethal, as well as more fruitful, ways to approach both intellectual and practical questions than confrontational approaches do. It helps ground theory in practice and encourages groups to alter the views of those who define them as the ?enemy.? It also offers a broader basis from which to approach organizational reform. Renewed interest in ethical issues in international relations also suggests a broadening of diplomatic concerns.

Enhancing understanding of diplomacy, moving strategy to the fore and increasing skills in behavior and techniques require major emphasis at intellectual, educational and organizational levels. It requires specialists to communicate more effectively. If enhancing diplomacy to improve negotiation is good, then more effort should be expended in this direction.

The academic culture is pressured into producing empirical knowledge; more effort should be given to linkages between normative elements and empirical studies. ?Diplomacy? as an approach to issues and a set of skills has much to recommend it to help ease chaos and manage the planet.