Diplomacy — as an official medium of inter-state communication

When India and Pakistan are not fighting, they are usually talking — through ambassadors, back channels, or a foreign minister’s phone call. That talking has a name: diplomacy, the official medium through which sovereign states communicate, negotiate and manage their relationships without resorting to force. It sounds like a soft word for a hard subject, but Track I negotiations, backroom Track II dialogue, a Bollywood film screened abroad and a state government courting foreign investment are all forms of the same thing — and the exam expects you to tell them apart.

In two minutes

Diplomacy is the official medium through which sovereign states communicate and negotiate with each other, and it now takes several distinct forms — official government-to-government (Track I), unofficial dialogue among non-officials (Track II), image-building aimed at foreign publics (public diplomacy), and international outreach by sub-national governments (paradiplomacy).

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The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – III: International Relations on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.