ABSTRACT
The public is ambivalent about diplomats and diplomacy. Among insiders, diplomacy might be seen as a noble pursuit. But such positive sentiments are not widely shared. The public also presents the discourse of diplomats as obfuscating and duplicitous. The public hankers for clarity and certainty. It has little patience for what diplomats see as "constructive ambiguity. The lifestyle ascribed to diplomats also creates resentment in a public that has to fund that lifestyle with the taxes it pays. The public image of diplomats is certainly far removed from the grayish sobriety of their frequently tedious work and existence. Various definitions are being offered on what the words "diplomacy" and "diplomat" imply. Most of these definitions still assign to diplomats the role as the main, or at least as the privileged "gatekeepers" at the borderline that separates internal politics from the world beyond national borders.
