ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the surveys of the large cross-disciplinary literature on nonverbal communication. Research that has revealed relationships between nonverbal decoding and interpersonal social skills among adults and encoding skills and social competence among adolescents point to the importance of continued investigations of these aspects of individual performance. Sigmund Freud's approach to the investigation of nonverbal behaviour as communication appears to have taken the analogies of the riddle or perhaps the obscure text that can be made meaningful by the application of accepted interpretive principles. The chapter stresses that nonverbal behaviour, as a communication skill, is usefully understood when discussed in role- and setting-defined contexts. The skill is based upon evidence picked up directly or indirectly from the environment, and it is used for the attempted achievement of whatever issue may be required at the time of the performance. The chapter discusses themes and techniques for analysis, and emphasises the special features of one particular context, that of international politics.
