What are the skills of diplomacy and how are the skills acquired?

Question

by undertaking the course entitled "diplomacy",what are your expectatons in terms of acquiring the skills pertaining to it?

Answer 1

Diplomacy has been said to be the art of getting what you want from someone who doesn't want to give it to you, and having them thank you afterwords....

Coursework provides the foundation, experience provides the skill.  Diplomacy is essentially the art of negotiating, imbued with protocol - the protocol (scripted behavior such as who is introduced to whom first, where to sit, etc. ) and the basic tenets of negotiating (know your limits, come from a position of strength, hold back your trump card, etc.) you can lean in class, but perfecting the art of negotiating must be practiced in the real world to be honed as a skill.

Answer 2

Are you asking what you might be expected to learn about diplomacy from an academic course on the subject?  Never having taken such a course, I suppose it would cover the history  of diplomacy and the various practices, treaties and protocols that govern relations between governments.

But the PRACTICE of diplomacy is quite different from the theory.  While most people have a mental image of the "striped-pants cookie pusher" attending endless glittering diplomatic functions by night and negotiating important matters in oak-panelled offices of the foreign ministry by day, actual diplomatic work is much more varied and also a lot less glamorous. Diplomats are basically bureaucrats who work in offices overseas doing many of the same things that government colleagues in domestic positions do back in the US -- i.e., writing reports, managing programs and budgets, and attending meetings to assure that everybody in the mission is working toward the same ends.  The context is certainly different,  but most of the professional skills necessary to be effective are transferable to and from any government bureaucracy...except for the area of suitability for overseas work.  By this I mean the ability to adapt to foreign cultures and environments, and the willingness to accept and deal with manners and customs which may not be consistent with your own.  Diplomatic protocol was developed in part to create a uniform "code of conduct" to  minimize cultural differences, but a diplomat spends much more time dealing with the common citizens of his/her country of assignment than with foreign ministry officials schooled in diplomatic niceties.  

I won't belabor this theme, but merely summarize by saying that anyone can master the theory of diplomacy, but to be an effective diplomat one must have certain qualities of personality  which predict success.  Learning how to behave at the ambassador's reception or how to draft a formal diplomatic note is easy; communicating and working collaboratively with foreign publics that may not share your values, social norms or political philosophy is much more challenging.  This skill cannot be taught, nor can it be mastered by someone insufficiently flexible and adaptable.