Politics And Diplomacy Of Peacemaking

This groundbreaking book explores how adversaries in world politics can surmount their differences and disputes and start on the path to peaceful, mutually productive relations. Writing with authority and clarity, Mel Gurtov defines the strategy of deep engagement, examines how it progressed under President Obama with Cuba and Iran, and probes its potential for US–Russian and US–North Korean relations and other critical hotspots. At the core of the book are case studies that highlight the strategy and practice of engagement in both successful and failed efforts. Showing that domestic political obstacles turn out to be more formidable than strategic interests when national leaders seek to engage adversaries, Gurtov draws lessons for diplomacy in ways to engage, such as practicing mutual respect, paying attention to symbols, and using incentives rather than sanctions. At a time when use of force remains the main way governments pursue their interests, Engaging Adversaries is a timely appeal to diplomacy and a reminder that a multitude of ways exist for adversaries to find common ground.

"Diplomacy in pursuit of peace and security faces severe challenges not seen in decades. Obstacles to diplomacy are coming from the re-emergence of strong states, discord in the UN Security Council, destabilizing transnational non-state actors, closing space for civil society within states, and the weakening of the international liberal order. Diplomacy and the Future of World Order develops three visions of the future in which states and other key actors in the international system respond by deciding to go it alone, return to a liberal order, or collaborate on a case-by-case basis to address common threats and problems. The central focus of this book is peace and conflict diplomacy, defined as the effort to manage others' conflicts, cope with great power competition, or deal with threats to the state system itself. The distinguished international group of experts writing in this volume analyze the different scenarios' impact on peace and conflict diplomacy from the perspective of key actors and regions. It also explores the prospects for discord or collaboration around four major security issues-peacekeeping, nuclear nonproliferation, cyber competition, and terrorism. Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall conclude by identifying emerging types of diplomacy that can provide the foundation for global peacemaking and conflict management in an uncertain future"--

This in-depth analysis goes behind the headlines to understand why crucial negotiations fail. The author argues that diplomats often enter negotiations with flawed assumptions about human behavior, sovereignty, and power. Essentially, the international community is using a model of European diplomacy dating back to the 18th century to solve the complex problems of the 21st century. Through numerous examples, the author shows that the key failure in current diplomatic efforts is the entrenched belief that nations, through their representatives, will act rationally to further their individual political, economic, and strategic interests. However, the contemporary scientific understanding of how people act and see their world does not support this assumption. On the contrary, research from decision-making theory, behavioral economics, social neuropsychology, and current best practices in mediation indicate that emotional and irrational factors often have as much, if not more, to do with the success or failure of a mediated solution. Reviewing a wide range of conflicts and negotiations, Noll demonstrates that the best efforts of negotiators often failed because they did not take into account the deep-seated values and emotions of the disputing parties. In conclusion, Noll draws on his own long experience as a professional mediator to describe the process of building trust and creating a climate of empathy that is the key to successful negotiation and can go a long way toward resolving even seemingly intractable conflicts.

From handshakes on the White House lawn to Picasso's iconic dove of peace, the images and stereotypes of peace are powerful, widespread and easily recognizable. Yet if we try to offer a concise definition of peace it is altogether a more complicated exercise. Not only is peace an emotive and value-laden concept, it is also abstract, ambiguous and seemingly inextricably tied to its antithesis: war. And it is war and violence that have been so compellingly studied within critical geography in recent years. This volume offers an attempt to redress that balance, and to think more expansively and critically about what peace means and what geographies of peace may entail. The editors begin with an examination of critical approaches to peace in other disciplines and a helpful genealogy of peace studies within geography. The book is then divided into three sections. The opening section examines how the idea of peace may be variously constructed and interpreted according to different sites and scales. The chapters in the second section explore a remarkably wide range of techniques of peacemaking.This widens the discussion from the archetypical image of top-down, diplomatic state-led initiatives to imperial boundary making practices, grassroots cultural identity assertion, boycotts, self-immolation, ex-paramilitary community activism, and 'protective accompaniment'. The final section shifts the scale and focus to everyday personal relations and a range of practices around the concept of coexistence. In their concluding chapter the editors spell out some of the key questions that they believe a geography of peace must address: What spatial factors have facilitated the success or precipitated the failure of some peace movements or diplomatic negotiations? Why are some ideologies productive of violence in some places but co-operation in others? How have some communities been better able to deal with religious, racial, cultural and class conflict than others? How have creative approaches to sharing sovereignty mitigated or transformed territorial disputes that once seemed intractable? Geographies of Peace is the first book wholly devoted to exploring the geography of peace.Drawing on both recent advances in social and political theory and detailed empirical research covering four continents, it makes a significant intervention into current debates about peace and violence.

This updated and expanded edition of the highly popular volume originally published in 1997 describes the tools and skills of peacemaking that are currently available and critically assesses their usefulness and limitations.

'Of all branches of human endeavour, diplomacy is the most protean.' That is how Harold Nicolson begins this book. It is an apt opening. The Paris Conference of 1919, attended by thirty-two nations, had the supremely challenging task of attempting to bring about a lasting peace after the global catastrophe of the Great War. Harold Nicolson was a member of the British delegation. His book is in two parts. In the first he provides an account of the conference, in the second his diary covering his six month stint. There is a piquant counterpoise between the two. Of his diary he writes, 'I should wish it to be read as people read the reminiscences of a subaltern in the trenches. There is the same distrust of headquarters; the same irritation against the staff-officer who interrupts; the same belief that one's own sector is the centre of the battle-front; the same conviction that one is, with great nobility of soul, winning the war quite single-handed.' The diary ends with prophetic disillusionment, 'To bed, sick of life.' As a first-hand account of one of the most important events shaping the modern world this book remains a classic.