Editing Foreign policy (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Diplomatic history}}
The idea of long-term management of relationships followed the development of professional [[diplomatic corps]] that managed [[diplomacy]].

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 [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs#Lists of current ministries of foreign affairs|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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

[[Think tank]]s are occasionally employed by government foreign relations organizations to provide research and advocacy in the development of foreign policy proposals, alternatives to existing policy, or to provide analytical assessments of evolving relationships.