ENGAGING ADVERSARIES BY MEL GURTOV

 Conflict resolutions is a hope far more often than a reality, which is why conflict
management may be the more appropriate characterization
 Those who speak the language of power will always have the upper hand over proponents
of engaging enemies
 War may again look more promising than peace
 Engagement is a process more than a policy; a strategy more than a tactic
 Using incentives rather than sanctions to find a common good
 Charles A. Kuphan has written “ the historical record confirms that accommodation, not
confrontation, is usually the essential ingredient of successful rapprochement”
 A chief purpose of engaging enemies is to promote one’s own security
 A government that engages in genocide, ethnic cleansing, or other heinous crimes does
not deserve to be “engaged”
 Just as it is easier to go to war than to achieve a lasting peace, it is easier to make threats
than to craft believable promises
 Refusing engagements may consequence in denial of the benefits of deeper contracts or
refusing to support a rival’s case in international organizations
 It is one thing to reset relations with an adversary and quite another to pretend that there
are no serious differences with it
 When allies believe themselves threatened by a partner’s engagement efforts, they start
whining about their vulnerability and demanding some sort of compensation for it
 Timing, context, and above all genuineness are essential when seeking to justify engaging
an authoritarian rival
 The more open and consensual the policy-making process, the more vulnerable
engagement is to defeat
 Changing the narrative is an effective tool
 Befriending the enemy of my enemy
 The strategy of engagement is built around preventive peace -making
 Apologizing has dynamic possibilities
 Engaging an adversary by apologizing does not cancel out the terrible wrong that has
been inflicted
HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH IRAN
 Avoid legalism seek solutions based on “mutually agreeable standards”
 Be aware of Iran’s historical greatness and past grievances based on humiliations by
foreign powers
 Clarify lines of authority: be sure to talk with the right people, but also present a common
Phil position
 Understand Iranian interest
 Do not assume the Iranians are illogical, uncompromising, untrustworthy, duplicitous
(Respect your adversary)
  Ignore hostile rhetoric and grandstanding
 Remember that there were successful US-Iran talks in the past
 Be ever conscious of the politics of a deal

DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Reciprocity- The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially
privileges granted by one country or organization to another.
2. Leeway- The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially
privileges granted by one country or organization to another.
3. Daunting-seeming difficult to deal with in anticipation; intimidating
4. Appeasement- reconciliation
5. Elusive-Difficult to find or achieved
6. Exacerbate- To make something worse