As the pattern of interaction between governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) becomes more intense, challenges are posed to both sets of actors operating in policy arenas where the boundaries between issues and roles have become increasingly unclear. Not surprisingly, this changing dynamic has been viewed through a variety of lenses and is the subject of differing interpretations. These interpretative tensions are clearly exhibited in the context of that sub-area of international relations concerned with diplomacy and identified as diplomatic studies. Relating the concerns and activities of NGOs to a concept which, by historical development and common definition, is closely identified with the state and patterns of intergovernmental relations, underscores many of the paradigmatic dilemmas and conflicts inherent in the study of international relations. Most commonly, these differences are expressed in terms of exclusivity. State and non-state actors are viewed as inhabiting different environments, working to different rule-books and occupying very different positions on the scale of importance in world politics. They exist, therefore, in two solitudes with little or no interaction between their worlds.