As an artistic Jewish family, they kept a low profile in the Neuilly-sur-Seine suburb of Paris and houses in the country during the second world war, discreet if not quite in hiding.
There were a variety of efforts, both public and discreet, to avert a war in Iraq, but Mr. Hage's back channel appears to have been a final attempt by Mr. Hussein's government to reach American officials.
For the first part of my career as a diplomat, wars were still discreet matters.
And despite its rather sensationalist title, they have produced an excellent and timely book.Although it has hardly made the front pages, there has been some intense discreet diplomacy concerning this problematic legacy of the Balkan wars in recent weeks.
He's very discreet about his presence there as "a guest of the war" and doesn't intrude on his hosts or readers.
They also display his sensitive eye for landscape (the non-Canadian sections were shot in Jordan) and his discreet use of digital effects to simulate the large-scale effects of war.
One thing that is certain is that the civil war in Syria no longer exists in a vacuum as something discreet and confined within the country's borders.
Although she takes a discreet shot at "heroic action figure" colleagues for their eagerness to cover wars and disasters, she remains very much the heroic action figure on the news front, propelling herself into the next big story.
Benedict said that during World War II, "the Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way".
