When I read the definition of Diplomacy from the Oxford dictionary, the first thing that came to my mind was a Chameleon. I do not mean to be pejorative and I may be biased, because as you may know these beautiful creatures have the ability to change the color of their skin as a survival strategy and many use the term “Chameleon”, in business and politics, as someone who changes constantly and not necessarily for good reasons or the best intentions.
Diplomacy is a survival strategy as well, being defined as “The profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations” and “The art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way”.
I truly do not know if it is an “art” or what, as I have issues defining the word art, but it truly is a profession or activity that, most of the time, many tend to associate with politics.
Nevertheless, I believe it is truly important to recognize context in a world that has so many different way of people expressing themselves. And not only people, but groups of people. Leaders must recognize this and adapt to the circumstances. The ethical discussion is another story.
Thanks for your comment! When I read it, I could not stop thinking about the concepts we have -in western societies- of technique (technical), ability or art. I have been reading more about how we, as humans, understand certain terms. It will be awesome to start a discussion around the article found at this site: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/episteme-techne/
Also, talking about what constitutes art and for a little about philosophy of language, we can check the aesthetics on Ludwig Wittgenstein at the following link: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein-aesthetics/
Let’s keep the dialogue here! 🙂