Personal experience --- That is so true and I have never realized it. I studied International Affairs in Mexico, at a university which was once known for training future diplomats. The study program is mostly focused on history of all regions of the world (Europe, US and Canada, Latin America, Japan and China, Middle East... not Africa, though), which one may assume helps students and possibly future diplomats be aware of historical context and some cultural traits in different countries. However, there is not a single couse on the use of diplimatic language, discourse analysis and many other tools that would be very helpful.

I personally came accross this whole new field of knowledge during my masters degree in Security and Crisis Management. There was one particular elective, which I ended up taking because everything else was closed, that offered a lot of material to analyze. It was called "Emotions, passions, and world security" and ended up being one of my favorites covering subjects such as apology diplomacy and anger diplomacy. Wished I had learned about all this well before, but it is never too late ;)

Source author: Desirée Colomé Menéndez dcolome@sre.gob.mx