During a training seminar, Ruben Brunsveld of the Stockholm Institute for Public Speaking (StIPS) asked the question: “Which words do you associate with diplomacy and diplomatic language?”
He found out that the words commonly associated with diplomacy are intrasparent, unclear, vague and even lying.
Actually, diplomatic language can be extremely confusing if you are not used to the codes. It is essential to know the context of the communication and the relationships among the people involved to understand the meaning of a “diplomatic” conversation. So why don’t they just say what they think?
In the international arena, actors coming from different backgrounds meet each other, bearing different communication styles and value systems. Diplomatic language is used to avoid mistakes and to establish “the rules of the game”.
In a field where interpersonal interaction is crucial, those rules are needed to communicate without running the risk of offending your counterpart. For sure, you have to know and practice them, taking into account that diplomats do not lie. They just “soften”.
Read the full article at http://stips.se/why-diplomats-lie/
| What they say |
What they mean |
| We believe the Dutch proposal is very interesting | What a strange Dutch proposal, we will not accept it! |
| We understand the general idea behind your proposal | We have a serious problem with how you want to implement this |
| We believe this proposal deserves further examination | We cannot accept it in this form |
| We have complete understanding for the French concerns, however we feel that we should …. | We disagree with the French |
| I hope we can be pragmatic and work towards a constructive solution | Please stop whining about technicalities |
| I am not quite convinced the German proposal reflects the best way out for all of us. | We will not accept the German proposal. |
| By inserting this you make it hard for me to convince my colleagues. | Stop making my position difficult. |
| I ask your understanding for the fact that this is very important for Sweden. | It is important but I cannot tell you why. Ask me at the coffee machine. |
| I have been instructed by my government to propose the following solution. | I know this is not acceptable for you. Do not shoot the messenger. |
| The internal coordination process is still ongoing | We did not have time to look over the document. |
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