Diplomacy
Roles: diplomat, counterparty, protocol, concession, reciprocity, tolerance, convention
The practice of managing relations between parties through protocol, convention, and mutual accommodation. As a source domain for metaphor, diplomacy supplies models of tolerance (accepting what you would not send), protocol (agreed-upon forms that enable communication), and the tension between strictness and flexibility in exchanges. Its metaphorical exports emphasize that interoperability requires each party to absorb some cost of the other party’s imperfection.