FUNDAMENTALS OF DIPLOMATIC PROTOCOL

Every so often indistinctly designated as both ceremonial and etiquette, diplomatic protocol has come to encapsulate all the formal ingredients bearing on practices of diplomacy and which are not their substantive or factual constituents. Albeit rather decorative, pretentious and ostentatious, protocol in diplomacy has had the commanding role of facilitating diplomatic encounters, communications and negotiations. However, beyond its undeniable merit as the very environment of common sense pertaining to good manners, appropriate behavior and deferent courtesy, diplomatic protocol could be analytically comprehended distinguishing between the variety of nuances and connotations so frequently amalgamated within the conventional nomen of protocol. The present study attempts at clarifying and discerning the plethora of its significances and appropriations. Accordingly, a cautious understanding of protocol references should carefully delineate between protocol and etiquette, protocol and ceremonial, and protocol as precedence, in addition to looking for the proper functions and applications of diplomatic protocol.