Diplomacy is the exchange of restraint

We have contractual relations that govern trades; we have traditional relations that govern gifts; and we have diplomatic relations that govern covenants. 

Covenants apply to parties that are sufficiently different from each other that they can operate symbiotically. Sexual relations are diplomatic, as are labor/management relations, as are class relations. The Bible defines the nature of diplomatic relations between the divine and the mundane as they are governed by the rules of covenants. 

The key to covenantal relations is the importance of self-restraint. Diplomacy is the exchange of restraint. It is not the electrons that flow in a semiconductor but the holes. Diplomacy operates in a semiconductor social, political and economic universe. 

The resource curse operates to destroy the ability for semiconductors to function effectively in society. Strongman rule answers self-restraint with brutal force. Terror is the systematic destruction of the elementary action of self-restraint that makes the rule of law possible. 

Self-restraint is what transforms vengeance into justice. Self-restraint is what makes electoral politics possible. Self-restraint can take the form of submission to a higher authority. When that submission comes about not through self-restraint but through fear, the higher authority moves from legitimate to illegitimate, and from the rule of law to strongman rule.