According to Louise Diamond and John McDonald, the term was invented in 1982 by Joseph Montville of the Foreign Service Institute to describe “methods of diplomacy that were outside the formal governmental system”. According to their definition, Track Two refers to the “non-governmental, informal and unofficial contacts, and activities between private citizens or groups of individuals, sometimes called citizen diplomats or nonstate actors.” Its basic premise is the assumption that “the expertise for dealing successfully with conflict and peacemaking does not reside solely within government personnel or procedures.”

In the literature on Asia-Pacific security, Track Two (or the Second Track as it is often called) is the “unofficial” channel for political, economic, and security dialogue in the region. Secondtrack meetings and organizations are typically made up of scholars, journalists, and occasionally politicians, as well as civilian and military officials acting in their “private” or “unofficial” capacities. As Pauline Kerr notes, Track Two in the Asia-Pacific is better described as an unofficial rather than nongovernmental channel, because

The second-track process is based upon principles of informality, inclusivity, and non-attribution, in order to encourage frank debate and openness by the participants. It works from the assumption that the unofficial status of the meetings will permit the discussion of subjects that might be considered too sensitive or controversial for official discourse or formal negotiations. Track Two encourages the floating of “trial balloon” policy proposals and “has helped establish building blocks for supporting cooperative arrangements at the official level”.