Lakhdar Brahimi Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
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I'm interested to know, after you've been in all of these negotiations in some terribly hot spots, what are the skills and the temperament required to be a negotiator? Students are always asking that question. What might you share with us about that?
I have been asked that question once or twice, and frankly, I do not have an exhaustive description of those qualities. Probably what you need is attention. What you need to know is that you are not going to come with a solution and you are not going to walk in on these stupid people who are killing one another who understand nothing but you are, of course, much better than they and you have a solution, you just sit down and say, "Here it is for you." No. The solution is with them, not with you, and you have got to help them get it out, to help them produce that solution.
This is a tension, and [you seek] the capability of finding that little common space that exists always between people who have differences, and then try to take them to that little space and see if you can help them enlarge it. But one has to be always aware, as I told you, that you do not have the solution. The solution is there with the people who are involved in the conflict, not with you.
It sounds like you're saying that patience is very important.
Very much so, yes.
And living with uncertainty.
Yes, sure.
I have one or two expressions that I use often. One of them is "navigation by sight." You go into these situations with instruments, the best you can have, but you've got to know that these instruments are not perfect, that your map is -- you know, maybe there are rocks out there that are not on your map, so you must be on the lookout. If you hit a rock, you don't say, "But no, this doesn't exist on my map." Even if it doesn't exist on your map, it's going to destroy your boat if you are not careful. So, that is one. I tell my young colleagues, "You don't need blinkers and certainties. You need to have as wide a field of vision as possible. And also, please open your ears. Listen more than you talk."
You must have to have a sense of the politics of a place, of its history and its culture, too.
Yes, that is also a very, very important thing. I think knowledge -- that's another important thing. You need to know where you are. You need to know why these people have this conflict. As I told you, you will get nowhere if you walk in thinking, "These are stupid people. That's why they have a conflict. They're destroying their country. How stupid." There are reasons you've got to understand.
What again I tell my people is that no matter how much you know, it's never enough. You will always discover, after the fact, that you've missed something. In Afghanistan, for example, I have been in touch with very highly learned people who know everything about Afghanistan, and we regularly discuss these issues, and very often we discover that we missed something, we didn't know something, there was something that we were wrong about, that we had misunderstood or ignored. This is, you see, what happens. So, the first time you sit with people, as soon as you start talking to them, this is your first discovery: "I was wrong about this, I was wrong about that. I didn't realize that it was like this." You've got to have the mental disposition to add that to your ideas, your plans, your vision, on the basis of what you hear and find out.
You said in a recent speech that you have to navigate between ignorance on the one hand and arrogance. I'm re-stating what you said ...
You put it much better than I did.
Well, you're helping me understand a lot here. The language you use -- we just had Pamela Constable, the deputy editor of the Washington Post, and she used this notion of looking, when you go to a place as a reporter, having a 360-degree vision.
Yes, I met her in Afghanistan.
Yes. In fact, she sends her best wishes. So, it's very interesting. I guess that to be empowered to have such sight is partly the result of your own experience but it's also the mandate that you have. In other words, when you are the representative of the UN, your legitimacy comes from that 360-degree angle in the UN, and then bringing it to the country to draw out new information about the locale.
Yes. Of course the UN brings in a lot of moral authority. It doesn't give you much money and it doesn't give you any weapons or soldiers, but it does give you a lot of moral authority. The mandate you go with is intimidating and also is a source of respect that you gain, because you have come with this mandate from the United Nations. But you have got to build on it. It won't last -- it's not the capital that is going to take you very long. It gives you a good start. You've got to protect it and make it grow.
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