Diplomacy
Protected by rules develop over the centuries (special immunities and privileges), diplomats represent their state, negotiate on its behalf, gather information, and contribute to policy formulation. As such, diplomacy id one of the institutions of the international system, though occasionally (especially in the twentieth century) revolutionary regimes such as the Soviet Union after 1917 and Iran after 1979 have rejected its trappings. Eventually, those regimes adjusted to the institution of diplomacy more than it did to them; but they would have agreed with the stark definition of “diplomacy” given by the Chinese communist statesman Chou /en Lai used as the title of this section, equating diplomacy with war.