Talk:Diplomacy

Short description

I added a short description to this page as part of a run through all the remaining level-3 vital articles that still lacked them. Per WP:SHORTDESC, the target maximum length is 40 characters and the goal is to help users understand what this page is about when they're making searches, not to comprehensively define the topic (for instance, at pages like History of music we just use Aspect of history). The Wikidata description for this page was Art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states (87 characters), which I shortened to Art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states (a little shorter at 77 characters), going off of the lead sentence, which began Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states (Diplomacy (disambiguation) also concurs). Horse Eye Jack reverted and added "and groups" to the lead sentence.

I'm not a diplomacy scholar, but it seems like there may be a bit of an unaddressed question about whether or not it's okay for the page to cover the colloquial definition of diplomacy ("the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way" from the dictionary) or only the professionalized definition ("the profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country's representatives abroad" from the dictionary). Currently, the page seems basically the latter, and my initial thought is that that's reasonable, since the colloquial definition can be covered by other pages like negotiation (we could add a hatnote For further information on diplomacy in an informal sense, see negotiation.). If we go with that, there's then the question of the short description to use for the professionalized definition. If we can find a way to keep it within the 40 character guideline or closer to it, we ought to. At first glance, "state" seems sufficient to me, since the term is broader than most people realize — we define it as "Organised community living under a system of government" in its short description. But I'd like to hear from everyone here: how necessary is mentioning non-state groups to the essence of the topic, and is there any other way to communicate the essence in as short/simple a way as possible? {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 17:20, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

I dont think expanding to groups is expanding to the colloquial. I am an international relations scholar, but thats neither here nor there. Groups also includes the supranational, for instance the EU’s diplomacy. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 18:11, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

I added groups because thats whats in the body, if we want to change what the article is about we’re gonna have to take a lot of stuff out. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 18:13, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

I'll add back the wikidata description (including "groups"), since the most important thing is that the article have some shortdesc rather than none. Beyond that, it's a matter I'm fine leaving to those of you who watch this area more closely than I do, so long as you all keep conciseness/clarity for a general non-specialist audience top of mind. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 20:09, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

Diplomacy as a social skill

Perhaps this article can be expanded, or a companion article can be written to address diplomacy as a social skill. Lbeaumont (talk) 16:57, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

A very late reply. Lbeaumont, that would be very interesting! Lova Falk (talk) 09:32, 5 January 2026 (UTC)