Diplomatic Negotiations 101
As I have said many times in this space and others, Iraq’s civil strife will be resolved by diplomatic measures not warfare. Here are some tips from Dennis Ross, one of the best negotiators in the business:
When one looks at U.S. foreign policy and our standing in the world today, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Bush administration has not exactly excelled in the exercise of statecraft. Good statecraft matches objectives and means. Poor statecraft does not.
Look at the administration’s signature issues—Iraq and democratic transformation in the Middle East—and one sees poster children for ambitious objectives married to minimalist means. Part of the problem has been the instinct to try to get by on the cheap. More basically, however, the problem has been the administration’s tendency to rely on faith-based, not reality-based, assessments. Too often objectives have been shaped by a world that the administration wants to believe exists or can be easily created.
If the administration had more of a negotiating mind-set, it would have understood the importance of seeing the world as it truly is. That does not require settling for the status quo. Those with a negotiating mind-set believe they can solve problems even if they don’t believe every problem can be solved. They realize they have to understand each and every reality, no matter how unacceptable, before they can try to change it.
And this parting conclusion:
Ultimately, statecraft is about clarity, communication, intensive engagement, and knowing how to apply leverage. It is time to restore it to U.S. foreign policy.
Amen.
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One Response to “Diplomatic Negotiations 101”
While he worked for both Bush Sr. and Clinton and had a few achievements. The bottom line is that everything he NEGOTIATED….collapsed.
Clinton and Tenet finally reached the conclusion just before Bush Jr. took office that Arafat was the obstacle to peace and that any negotiations was next to impossible with him at the helm.
An agreement would render Arafat meaningless.
Remember that guy that was all for the Black guys having their own country in S. Africa. Yeah what was his name. You know the one who was on the front page everyday as long as he was struggling for peace.
After the peace was signed you know that guy, what was his name, that brought the blacks to power in Africa. You know who Im talking about.
Diplomacy for the diplomats is about the struggle not the results. The struggle is what they thrive on, not the results. This is something that Bush and company decided that since 1948 we have been NEGOTIATING in the MIDDLE EAST and its gotten us precisely NOTHING…HELLO….NOTHING.
The jury is still out. I’ll let history decide. Not the Antiwar.