Statecraft is skill in governing a country. A master of statecraft.
It covers diplomacy, alliances and timing rather than any single policy. Statecraft is judged over decades, which is why so little of it is recognised at the time.
1nounstatecraftSkill in governing a country.
“His statecraft kept three neighbours from ever combining against him.”
statecraft is a skill.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Middle English
stat
English
state
English, today
statecraft
Built from
From state + -craft. state comes from Middle English stat. From Middle English stat (as a noun); adopted c. 1200 from both Old French estat and Latin stātus (“manner of standing, attitude, position, carriage, manner, dress, apparel; and other senses”), from stō (“to stand”). a doublet of estate and status. The sense of "polity" develops in the 14th century. Compare French être, Greek στέω, Italian stare, Portuguese estar, Romanian sta, and Spanish estar. The verb is first attested around the beginning of the 16th century. Related to English stand. Displaced native Old English hād (“state, condition”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA