thumb|upright=1.3|U.S. secretary of state [[John Kerry and French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault leave the French Foreign Ministry at Quai d'Orsay after Ayrault awarded the secretary the Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur, the second-highest level of the French award, during a ceremony on December 10, 2016.]]
In international politics, protocol is the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state. It may also refer to an international agreement that supplements or amends a treaty.
A protocol is a rule which describes how an activity should be performed, especially in the field of diplomacy. In diplomatic services and governmental fields of endeavor protocols are often unwritten guidelines. Protocols specify the proper and generally accepted behavior in matters of state and diplomacy, such as showing appropriate respect to a head of state, ranking diplomats in chronological order of their accreditation at court, and so on. One definition is:
Definitions
There are two meanings of the word "protocol" in the context of international relations. In the legal sense, it is defined as an international agreement that supplements or amends a treaty. In the diplomatic sense, the term refers to the set of rules, procedures, conventions and ceremonies that relate to relations between states. In general, protocol represents the recognized and generally accepted system of international courtesy (comitas gentium).
The term protocol is derived, via French and Medieval Latin, from the Greek word protokollon "first glued sheet of or onto a papyrus-roll". This comes from the act of gluing a sheet of paper to the front of a document to preserve it when it was sealed, which imparted additional authenticity to it. In the beginning, the term protocol related to the various forms of interaction observed in official correspondence between states, which were often elaborate in nature. In course of time, however, it has come to cover a much wider range of international relations.