History Main / HumansAreDiplomats

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Humans in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' pretty much run TheFederation, and the Federation has been shown to be by far the most diplomacy-inclined power in the Alpha Quadrant, especially when compared to the ProudWarriorRace Klingon or Mustache-Twirling Roman-wannabe Romulans or Fascist Cardassians. It's notable that the Federation is pretty much the only Alpha Quadrant power that is formed from a coalition.
** Taken to an extreme in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', where the Klingons call upon the ''human'' captain of the Federation flagship, Jean-Luc Picard, to decide the next leader of the Klingon council. There are valid reasons for them not to trust their own people, of course, but even so...
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' shows that it was the humans who brought the other founding races of the Federation together. The Vulcans and Andorians had been at ''war'', and neither were very fond of the Tellarites, or vice versa...
* Stated outright by the Minbari ambassador Delenn as the reason that only humans could have built ''Series/BabylonFive'' - ''"Humans build communities."''
** She likes this so much, she becomes part human herself with that cocoon thing, and then [[InterspeciesRomance marries]] and [[HalfHumanHybrid has the child of]] John Sheridan. Of course, it helps that she ''needed'' all that in order to be come one-third of [[TheChosenOne The One]].
** Humanity's hat is so big that when Humanity is threatened by a civil war, the other races (including some that are rivals or were at war) form an alliance to support and help the humans (and the rest of the galaxy) because the prospect of losing Humanity's moderating, diplomatic voice is unacceptable.
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* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster[='=]s ''Design For Great-Day'', humans have this role. It's suggested that this is due to humans having an exceptional flair with language (being able to "talk the legs off a crocodile and insult its parentage in the process").
* In parts of the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse this trope seems to come up. Humanity is not the galaxy's most diplomatic species, and individuals vary wildly, but there's a joke that goes "How do you know a [species] is lying? Their mouth is open", in which [species] is filled in by Hutts, Bothans, or humans. There are a lot of places where humans are the only/majority population though, so it'd be plain stupid to send a Bothan diplomat to Kashyyyk, or a Trandoshan one to Naboo.
* In the the Creator/SergeyLukyanenko[[note]]A psychiatrist-cum-SF&F writer[[/note]] short story ''Negotiators'', supposedly inexperienced humans are so good at communicating with aliens that the aliens are scared. Since humans deny having any previous contacts with extraterrestrials, aliens start suspecting that humans did contact someone -- and exterminated them. The hero manages to convince the alien negotiator that this flexibility is the result of humans being the hybrid of species with vastly different psychology -- Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The alien negotiator and most humans would not accept the true reason: [[spoiler:[[BizarreSexualDimorphism the psychological difference between male and female humans is far greater than for any other sentient species]],]] thus humans are much better prepared to accept others' quirks and work around them.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* This is a point of fascination for many of the Trolls in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. Sure, humans may be a bunch of wimps who haven't built a galaxy-conquering empire or developed time-travelling IM clients, and they may be completely screwing up at [[spoiler: creating a new universe]]... but human society seems so much ''nicer'', and the Kids are really good at the whole "friendship" thing. The stand-out example of one of the Kids being diplomatic with a Troll is probably John with Vriska.
* A variant appears in ''WebComic/{{Vexxarr}}'', where the Mahakalosians [[http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=061110 explain]] to a human that they chose humanity as allies because they are ''explorers'' and most emphatically not warriors. True warrior cannot ever cooperate, but humans will cooperate readily, and they never deliberately seek to exterminate those they fight against. They do note that humanity does have problems trusting, which makes them less diplomatic than they could be.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** This overlaps with HumansAreAverage - humans have average stats and they can learn any language at character creation, a trait shared with partially human races like Half-Elves.
** In 3rd Edition at least, Half-Elves Are Diplomats even more than humans (or elves), being the only race to receive inherent bonuses to social skills. Which, admittedly, aren't very large, but dedicated [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath "Diplomancer"]] builds are almost always half-elves.
* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Imperium of Man is just about the least subtle, least tolerant, least diplomatic and most xenophobic bunch of humans you're ever likely to meet. Diplomacy, for the Imperium, is indulged in solely to keep alien races busy until sufficient military force can be mustered to obliterate them. But it's also mentioned that back before the Imperium, when humans first started moving amongst the stars nearly 30,000 years ago, they DID manage to create a Federation of nearly a hundred species... only to discover that it was the fear of Humanity's powerful technology and military that kept it together. After the [[RobotWar War with the Iron Men]] was over, a crippled humanity was turned on by every other Federation species. The Tau, an upcoming race near the Ultramar systems, fit this trope more neatly and are viewed by the older, more advanced races as unbelievably stupid and naive for even trying.
* In ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' humans were favored slaves of the [[AbusivePrecursors Syndics]], and often used as overseers. So they apply their Legacy stat to social and leadership skills.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' has the forging of new alliances between humans and various xenos forming a major part of the story and quests. Humans do this primarily on account of having recently fled a destroyed Earth and having run into the Ganglion, the evil coalition responsible for said destruction, on Mira; they desperately need all the allies they can get. It also helps that many of these new allies were former members of the Ganglion who changed sides because the humans were much nicer.

* In ''Fanfiction/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the UN presence in Equestria is this. Though, for all intents and purposes, they're not very good ones, being caught somewhere between ineffective appeasement and internal squabbling.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': While there are several human races, Imperials, the one fitting the classical fantasy-human mold best, are known to be skilled diplomats (in fact one of their abilities is to make people like them more and they often have bonuses to speech/diplomacy).

* In ''Fanfiction/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', the UN presence in Equeestria is this. Though, for all intents and purposes, they're not very good ones, being caught somewhere between ineffective appeasement and internal squabbling.

* In Creator/KeithLaumer's ''Literature/{{Retief}}'' books, humans operate the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, which is dedicated to adjudicating contentions between non-terrestrials and Earthlings. Although the CDT seems to succeed less due to its diplomatic prowess than from Reteif's unconventional approaches...

* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Imperium of Man is just about the least subtle, least tolerant, least diplomatic and most xenophobic bunch of humans you're ever likely to meet. Diplomacy, for the Imperium, is indulged in solely to keep alien races busy until sufficient military force can be mustered to obliterate them. But it's also mentioned that back before the Imperium, when humans first started moving amongst the stars nearly 30,000 years ago, they DID manage to create a Federation amongst nearly a hundred species. Only for them to discover that it was the fear of Humanity's powerful technology and military that kept it together when the War with the Iron Men was over and a crippled humanity was turned on by every other Federation species when they realized that humanity no longer had the muscle to enforce peace. The Tau, an upcoming race near the Ultramar systems, fit this trope more neatly and are viewed by the older, more advanced races as unbelievably stupid and naive for even trying.

* In the the Creator/SergeyLukyanenko[[note]]A psychiatrist-cum-SF&F writer[[/note]] short story ''Negotiators'', supposedly inexperienced humans are so good at communicating with aliens that the aliens are scared. Since humans deny having any previous contacts with extraterrestials, aliens start suspecting that humans did contact someone -- and exterminated them. The hero manages to convince the alien negotiator that this flexibility is the result of humans being the hybrid of species with vastly different psychology -- Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The alien negotiator and most humans would not accept the true reason: [[spoiler:[[BizarreSexualDimorphism the psychological difference between male and female humans is far greater than for any other sentient species]],]] thus humans are much better prepared to accept others' quirks and work around them.

** The [[AllThereInTheManual fluff]] plays with this. Humans got to be so good at negotiation because as a race, they were atypically factional until reaching space; the other side of this is they are equally as unusually practiced at killing each other when negotiations fail. The one other race that has realized this is ''terrified'' of humanity for that reason.

** which makes you wonder, 'who serves to keep the Horde from falling apart?' Probably the [[NobleSavage Tauren]]

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' shows that it was the humans who brought the first races forming the Federation together. Some of them had, in fact, been at war until then.

** Humanity's hat is so big that when Humanity is threatened by a civil war, the other races form an alliance (Including races that are rivals or were at war) to support and help the humans (and the rest of the galaxy) because the prospect of losing Humanity's moderating, diplomatic voice is too bad.

* Gleefully and gloriously inverted in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Imperium of Man is just about the least subtle, least tolerant, least diplomatic and most xenophobic bunch of humans you're ever likely to meet. Diplomacy, for the Imperium, is indulged in solely to keep alien races busy until sufficient military force can be mustered to obliterate them. The Tau race are perhaps the most diplomatic in 40k, having an actual diplomat caste - the water caste - to orchestrate negotiations and trade, and making significant use of alien mercenaries from allied worlds. Indeed, the Tau behave so much like the traditional "humans are diplomats" trope, and their aesthetic resembles that of aliens from numerous franchises where it is in effect, that it is very easy to see them as a deliberate foil to show just how much the Imperials in 40k are not this trope.

You can play with it at

* In parts of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse this trope seems to come up. Humanity is not the galaxy's most diplomatic species, and individuals vary wildly, but there's a joke that goes "How do you know a [species] is lying? Their mouth is open", in which [species] is filled in by Hutts, Bothans, or humans. There are a lot of places where humans are the only/majority population though, so it'd be plain stupid to send a Bothan diplomat to Kashyyyk, or a Trandoshan one to Naboo.
* In the the Creator/SergeyLukyanenko[[note]]A psychiatrist-cum-SF&F writer.[[/note]] short story ''Negotiators'', supposedly inexperienced humans are so good at communicating with aliens that the aliens are scared. Since humans deny having any previous contacts with extraterrestials, aliens start suspecting that humans did contact someone -- and exterminated them. The hero manages to convince the alien negotiator that this flexibility is the result of humans being the hybrid of species with vastly different psychology -- Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The alien negotiator and most humans would not accept the true reason: [[spoiler:[[BizarreSexualDimorphism the psychological difference between male and female humans is far greater than for any other sentient species]],]] thus humans are much better prepared to accept others' quirks and work around them.

* Gleefully and gloriously inverted in ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer 40000}}''. The Imperium of Man is just about the least subtle, least tolerant, least diplomatic and most xenophobic bunch of humans you're ever likely to meet. Diplomacy, for the Imperium, is indulged in solely to keep alien races busy until sufficient military force can be mustered to obliterate them. The Tau race are perhaps the most diplomatic in 40k, having an actual diplomat caste - the water caste - to orchestrate negotiations and trade, and making significant use of alien mercenaries from allied worlds. Indeed, the Tau behave so much like the traditional "humans are diplomats" trope, and their aesthetic resembles that of aliens from numerous franchises where it is in effect, that it is very easy to see them as a deliberate foil to show just how much the Imperials in 40k are not this trope.

* Gleefully and gloriously inverted in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40,000''. The Imperium of Man is just about the least subtle, least tolerant, least diplomatic and most xenophobic bunch of humans you're ever likely to meet. Diplomacy, for the Imperium, is indulged in solely to keep alien races busy until sufficient military force can be mustered to obliterate them. The Tau race are perhaps the most diplomatic in 40k, having an actual diplomat caste - the water caste - to orchestrate negotiations and trade, and making significant use of alien mercenaries from allied worlds. Indeed, the Tau behave so much like the traditional "humans are diplomats" trope, and their aesthetic resembles that of aliens from numerous franchises where it is in effect, that it is very easy to see them as a deliberate foil to show just how much the Imperials in 40k are not this trope.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' has humanity as the most diplomatic race, with all the backstabbing and double-dealing that ''proper'' diplomacy implies. [[AllThereInTheManual Dig into the codex]] and you'll see that every other race, to some degree or another, has a leadership caste and societies that have made obedience to proper authority second nature to them. When humanity, with its every-man-for-himself ethos, hits the galactic stage, nobody really seems to know how to deal with it. The rules are right there, and everyone else has followed them, and then the humans show up and start taking shortcuts that nobody else even considered. This has lead to Humanity getting a representative on the ruling Council less than a century after they made first contact; other races have gone for ''millenia'' as clients to the previous three Council races.

* In the the Creator/SergeyLukyanenko[[note]]A psychiatrist-cum-SF&F writer.[[/note]] short story ''Negotiators'', supposedly inexperienced humans are so good at communicating with aliens that the aliens are scared. Since humans deny having any previous contacts with extraterrestials, aliens start suspecting that humans did contact someone -- and exterminated them. The hero manages to convince the alien negotiator that this flexibility is the result of humans being the hybrid of species with vastly different psychology -- Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The alien negotiator and most humans would not accept the true reason: [[spoiler:the psychological difference between male and female humans is far greater than for any other species,]] thus humans are much better prepared to accept others' quirks and work around them.

* In parts of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse this trope seems to come up. Humanity is not the galaxy's most diplomatic species, and individuals vary wildly, but there's a joke that goes "How do you know a [species] is lying? Their mouth is open", in which [species] is filled in by Hutts, Bothans, or humans.
** There are a lot of places where humans are the only/majority population though, so it'd be plain stupid to send a Bothan diplomat to Kashyyyk, or a Trandoshan one to Naboo.

* This is a point of fascination for many of the Trolls in ''{{Homestuck}}''. Sure, humans may be a bunch of wimps who haven't built a galaxy-conquering empire or developed time-travelling IM clients, and they may be completely screwing up at [[spoiler: creating a new universe]]... but human society seems so much ''nicer'', and the Kids are really good at the whole "friendship" thing. The stand-out example of one of the Kids being diplomatic with a Troll is probably John with Vriska.

* The same happens in ''GalacticCivilizations 2'', Humans are stated with bonuses to negotiation.

* In ''SpaceRangers'' humans are this.
* The humans in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' have a bonus to reputation with any faction, both reflecting and reproducing this.

* ''{{Deadlock}}'', semi-obscure sci-fi empire-builder. Several races, and humans are diplomats and traders, with bonuses for making peace-treaties and establishing trade-routes.

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', this overlaps with HumansAreAverage - humans have average stats and they can learn any language at character creation, a trait shared with partially human races like Half-Elves.
** In 3rd Edition at least, [[HumansAreDiplomats Half-Elves Are Diplomats]] even more than humans (or elves), being the only race to receive inherent bonuses to social skills. Which, admittedly, aren't very large, but dedicated [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath "Diplomancer"]] builds are almost always half-elves.

* In Creator/KeithLaumer's ''Literature/{{Retief}} books, humans operate the Corps Diplomatique Terrestrienne, which is dedicated to adjudicating contentions between non-terrestrials and Earthlings. Although the CDT seems to succeed less due to its diplomatic prowess than from Reteif's unconventional approaches...

* ''MassEffect'' has humanity as the most diplomatic race, with all the backstabbing and double-dealing that ''proper'' diplomacy implies. [[AllThereInTheManual Dig into the codex]] and you'll see that every other race, to some degree or another, has a leadership caste and societies that have made obedience to proper authority second nature to them. When humanity, with its every-man-for-himself ethos, hits the galactic stage, nobody really seems to know how to deal with it. The rules are right there, and everyone else has followed them, and then the humans show up and start taking shortcuts that nobody else even considered. This has lead to Humanity getting a representative on the ruling Council less than a century after they made first contact; other races have gone for ''millenia'' as clients to the previous three Council races.

* ''{{Stonekeep}}'', if the only human playable character is any indication. Let's put it this way: the game's dwarves are biased against every other existing race ''except'' humans, and representatives from a good half of the other races will join you.

* In the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' series, Humans have bonuses to charisma, making them better negotiators. Furthermore, they have ''no'' racial rivals, unlike every other species in the game (at least in the first two). They have, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the third game's manual]], ''twice'' dominated the galaxy, forming allied fleets to take down both the Orion Guardian and Antares. They did this not through military conquest, but by convincing everyone else to work for them.

* In ''Negotiators'' short story by Creator/SergeyLukyanenko[[note]]A psychiatrist-cum-SF&F writer.[[/note]] supposedly inexperienced humans are so good at communicating with aliens, that aliens are scared. Since humans deny having any previous contacts with extraterrestials, aliens start suspecting that humans did contact someone -- and exterminated them. The hero manages to convince the alien negotiator that this flexibility is the result of humans being the hybrid of species with vastly different psychology -- Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The alien negotiator and most humans would not accept the true reason: [[spoiler:the psychological difference between male and female humans is far greater than for any other species,]] thus humans are much better prepared to accept others' quirks and work around them.