Narrow Definition

• "Diplomatic" can mean using tact and conciliation, especially in stressful situations, according to "Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition." Hence, any words used to prevent embarrassment, calm angry parties, avoid provocation, or in any other way to ease discomfort or anxiety would qualify as diplomatic language. Examples might include referring to robbery as "redistribution of wealth" to avoid angering the robbers or complimenting a lady on her attire despite her questionable taste.
  
  

Broader Definition

• If, however, diplomatic language is any language used in diplomacy to advance the ends of diplomacy, what it means can have broader scope. "Diplomacy" is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between nations, according to "Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary." Words used in that endeavor often go beyond the attempt to comfort and conciliate. In fact, sometimes they may purposely generate stress to exploit an adversary's weaknesses, promote a nation's values, or question an organization's legitimacy.
  
  

Exploitation

• Duplicity and bluff, notes "The Economist" magazine, are vital elements of diplomacy. In his diplomatic victories, Hitler used both, according to Henry Kissinger in his book "Diplomacy." Exploiting a sense of guilt among British and French leaders as well as their fear of war, Hitler's diplomacy moved his adversaries to accept Germany's rearmament, its remilitarization of the Rhineland, its takeover of Austria, and its seizure of Czechoslovakia---all through the use of language in negotiations independent of any exercise of force, notes Kissinger.
  
  

Values

• During an August 2009 trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton took a question from a university student inquiring about her husband's views, reports the Guardian.co.uk. Had she responded diplomatically in the narrow sense, she might have made a self-deprecating joke out of the question. Instead she pointedly refused to serve as a channel for her husband, thereby taking the occasion to convey one of the values her country represents--equal respect for women as for men.
  
  

Legitimacy

• Diplomatic language can legitimize or discredit controversial organizations. For example, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 demands the disarmament of militias inside Lebanon, observes Noam Chomsky in his book "What We Say Goes." Yet the armed organization Hezbollah continues to operate without hindrance from the government inside Lebanon. This is because the Lebanese government classifies Hezbollah not as a militia but as a "resistance movement"--a construct of language that justifies the government's inaction while comporting with the letter, if not the spirit, of the UN resolution, suggests Chomsky.