On Diplomacy and "Preconditions"
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 3:26 am
Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/b ... conditions
When Biden was asked during the most recent debate whether he would conduct diplomacy with Kim Jong Un without preconditions, he said that he would not. For those of you old enough to remember the 2008 Democratic primary, this question was posed back then too in the debates between HRC and Obama. Then candidate Obama stated that he did not believe in requiring preconditions to even start conducting diplomacy with countries like Iran and North Korea. Clinton used this against him in dramatic ads about a President answering a phone call in the middle of the night. The conservative media brought this up every single day from then on until Election Day, "Obama would meet with Iran without preconditions!"
Is this notion of preconditions for simply talking reasonable?
I say it is not. One, America would never tolerate this the other way around, if for example Putin said "I won't negotiate with you until you close a few military bases in the Baltic." Or if Iran gave America a list of sanctions that must be lifted to even come to the table.
Negotiating is about each side trying to get something they want. "We won't negotiate until you give us what we want" is absurd. Nothing is lost by having a meeting. I think it is incredibly harmful to hold diplomacy itself hostage to submission, and that "preconditions" becoming normalized will only increase the chance of war breaking out.
When Biden was asked during the most recent debate whether he would conduct diplomacy with Kim Jong Un without preconditions, he said that he would not. For those of you old enough to remember the 2008 Democratic primary, this question was posed back then too in the debates between HRC and Obama. Then candidate Obama stated that he did not believe in requiring preconditions to even start conducting diplomacy with countries like Iran and North Korea. Clinton used this against him in dramatic ads about a President answering a phone call in the middle of the night. The conservative media brought this up every single day from then on until Election Day, "Obama would meet with Iran without preconditions!"
Is this notion of preconditions for simply talking reasonable?
I say it is not. One, America would never tolerate this the other way around, if for example Putin said "I won't negotiate with you until you close a few military bases in the Baltic." Or if Iran gave America a list of sanctions that must be lifted to even come to the table.
Negotiating is about each side trying to get something they want. "We won't negotiate until you give us what we want" is absurd. Nothing is lost by having a meeting. I think it is incredibly harmful to hold diplomacy itself hostage to submission, and that "preconditions" becoming normalized will only increase the chance of war breaking out.