Negotiation

Personality is integral to negotiation. Someone carrying the belief that they contain unlimited divine authority ought to prove to be a difficult figure with whom to reach an agreement. How can you negotiate with someone holding an etched sense of great worth and accompanying belief system. Their authority is from their own perspective profoundly superior and without challenge.

Jump to a religious war which pits two groups holding differing religious views. Both hold a divine authority. This contains the ingredients for failure in an attempt at negotiation. How can you get past the deep religious beliefs which generate the cultural and societal living standards of two opposing religious systems. Its not something people want to change in this context with the exception that there might be a joint appreciation for the other side creating an opening for discussion.

The threat of war is an overwhelming hardball tactic. If the side doing the threatening has all the military to back up the threat, and that threat is formidable, how does the opposing party negotiate. Do they bluff, do they yield, do they deceive, do they fully cooperate, do they wait and pray, do they run and hide, do they fight anyhow and try to figure out how best to capitalize on slight weaknesses. Do they decide to become gorilla fighters using asymmetrical tactics.

Is it possible to negotiate with an enemy that is perceived to be so ruthless, so contemptuous that the term itself seems useless. They are beyond negotiation. Can a third party come into the situation and through a non biased perspective treat both sides with equal skill and clarity leading to valuable communication.

Then we get into the issue of what goal lies deep within the heart of the leaders themselves. Are they people who are ultimately seeking peace or are they seeking annihilation of the other side. Is there a hidden agenda that fits into a distant picture.

Now jump to this article. Briefly, a large group of former generals and security officials have called for the Bush Administration to back away from hardball tactics and saber rattling to begin negotiations with Iran over nuclear energy and weapons. Seymour Hersh speaking on Democracy Now pointed out that the Bush Administration,"does not talk with people it doesn't like."

It is telling that former military personnel of the highest rank, people who have intimate knowledge of war and the culture of war, understand that we are now in need of less hardball and more negotiation, and that they themselves are compelled to come forward and issue this statement.

With the release of John Dean's new book Conservatives Without Conscience the sense that the present US administration is intrinsically incapable of negotiation is being supported. The policy of non negotiated unilateral action is not valuable.

Image by Jeff Koons