The word of the day is démarche:

< French démarche (15–16th cent. in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter), vbl. n. < démarcher (12th cent.) to march, < dé- = Latin de- prefix 1c + marcher to march v.² In the 18th cent. nearly anglicized; now treated as a French loanword.

a. Walk, step; proceeding, manner of action.   

b. Esp. a diplomatic initiative, a political step or proceeding. (OED)

"With all the talk of how China could displace the U.S. as the leading financial superpower, it is easy to forget that economic disputes between Beijing and Western capitals are nothing new, and that in the past they sometimes went well beyond diplomatic démarches."

 - John Cassidy, "Enter the Dragon: Why 'state capitalism' is China's biggest knockoff", 13 December 2010 The New Yorker