It is named after Sir Cornelius Gunboat III, who lost his vocal chords in a duel.

seriously?

Hahaha no curly. Gunboat diplomacy is an actual diplomatic term that involves physical intimidation without compromise in negotiations.

Originally, ‘gunboat’ meant anonymous. Then it evolved into anonymous with no communication, I guess because no-communication became very popular and was always done anonymously to prevent cheating. Then it changed into no communication, I guess people saw the anonymity as only a support for no communication. This can be confusing when reading older Diplomacy literature (which says ‘no-press’ for no communication).

I don't know exactly why ‘gunboat’ was used for anonymous. It's not as if the leaders of China and Japan didn't know who the leaders of the U.K. and the U.S. were when the original gunboat diplomacy was being used on them. (And it's not like there was no communication either.)

Wait, that's where it originated? Now it sounds familiar...
Maybe it was because the Japanese/chinese didn't see the crew of the ships?

Here's Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_diplomacy

It looks like selective memory on my part to think that the term originated with the Opium War and the opening of Japan (although those are listed as examples). They don't actually say where the term originated, but give the pardigmatic example as the U.K. against Greece in 1850. (You could fit that into the 1900 variant pretty well, I think.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_diplomacy

In international politics, gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power—implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force.

Another Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Panther

This says that the term ‘gunboat diplomacy’ dates back only to 1911, first applied by the U.K. to describe actions by Germany against France. So the lopsided 19th-century examples that I'm familiar with would be retroactive and not very much like the original case. (On the other hand, that's one line in a differnt article, and I haven't checked the page history or references.)

None of this suggests any reason why it should mean an anonymous game, however.

Why isn't it called shotgun diplomacy? That would make more sense.

Lol curly. =)

Maybe they should call shotgun weddings, gunboat weddings instead <grin>.

Maybe they should have shotgun weddings on actual gunboats?

Chris I trust you to much :P

Chris I trust you to much :P

Toby, Gunboat doesn't have to be anonymous. It just means no press.

Maybe they should have gunboat weddings on shotguns. Wait, that doesn't make sense.

No, that makes perfect... wait... no it doesn't!

Chris, it USED to mean anonymous, then anonymous no-press, and now just no-press. (So if we want to explain it, we have to explain why it meant anonymous.) Check out back issues of the Diplomatic Pouch to see the evolution of the phrase.

wow chris...
curly trusts you 2x's too much

you should feel extra special




*and curly its too no to

....thats kinda hypocritical of me...
i made a spelling error while correcting curly's spelling error

**its not, not no

Toby, do we still have to explain why it meant anonymous if I lift up the right side of my jacket to reveal my holster?

yes

No Chris, it was named after Sir Cornelius Gunboat III, everyone knows that, now please put that away.