Foreign relations: Difference between revisions

'''Foreign relations''' or '''foreign affairs''' refers to the management of relationships and dealings between countries.<ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of foreign relations|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/foreign-relations|website=Collins English Dictionary}}</ref> Any results of [[foreign policy]] dealings and decisions can be considered foreign relations.<ref name=Merriam-Webster>{{cite web|title=Foreign Relations|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foreign%20relations|website=Merriam-Webster|accessdate=22 October 2014}}</ref>

 

The term foreign evolved during the mid-13th century from ''ferren, foreyne'', "out of doors", based on the [[Old French]] ''forain'', "outer, external, outdoor; remote", reflecting the sense of "not in one's own land" first attested in the late 14th century. Spelling in English was altered in the 17th century, perhaps by influence of the words ''reign'' and ''sovereign''. Both words were associated at the time with the most common office of [[monarch]] that determined [[foreign policy]], a set of diplomatic goals that seeks to outline how a country will interact with other countries of the world.

 

In the 18th century, due to extreme turbulence in [[History of Europe#Enlightenment|European diplomacy]] and ongoing conflicts, the practice of diplomacy was often fragmented by the necessity to deal with isolated issues, termed "affairs". Therefore, while domestic management of such issues was termed [[civil affairs]] (peasant riots, treasury shortfalls, and court intrigues), the term [[foreign affairs]] was applied to the management of temporary issues outside the sovereign realm. This term remained in widespread use in the English-speaking states into the 20th century, and remains the name of departments in [[Department of Foreign Affairs#Country-related articles and lists|several states]] that manage foreign relations. Although originally intended to describe short term management of a specific concern, these departments now manage all day-to-day and long-term [[international relations]] among states.

 

Foreign relations are governed by several conditions within which they exist:

 

Organisations such as the [[Council of Foreign Relations]] in the United States are sometimes employed by government foreign relations organisations to develop foreign policy proposals as alternatives to existing policy, or to provide analytical assessments of evolving relationships.

 

{{Reflist}}

*Latimer, Matthew (2014). ''Conversation Concerning Expertness''. GTalk.

 

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