First used to describe former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's personal role during the period following the 1973 Yom Kippur War when he was helping to negotiate a disengagement agreement between Israel and the defeated armies of Syria and Egypt. Shuttle diplomacy is now widely used to describe a process whereby a diplomat, envoy, or other negotiator from one nation personally travels back and forth (i.e. "shuttles") between different states that are in conflict and meets with the leaders of each side in an attempt to broker a ceasefire or forge some other diplomatic solution.

Examples of U.S. shuttle diplomacy include the work of U.S. Middle East Coordinator Dennis Ross in 1995 and 1996, who "shuttled" many times between Israeli leaders and those in the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in an attempt to further the Middle East peace process. Other instances include the attempts in 1998 of U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke to bring peace between Yugoslavia and its secessionist rebels in Kosovo province. In November 1998, U.S. envoy Anthony Lake practised shuttle diplomacy when he travelled back and forth between Ethiopia and Eritrea in an effort to end a border conflict.