"The Road Not Taken" to Peace

Speaking of framing. One that has been troubling me lately is the use of the word "diplomacy" in place of "negotiation." As negotiation is my field, perhaps I'm particularly perturbed. But, diplomacy is largely about tact involved in international relations. Negotiation is about grappling with issues and finding a solution. Both are necessary to good relations with other countries, but negotiation is the means by which solutions other than war are achieved. Condoleezza Rice is not a negotiator. Negotiation has come to mean weakness during the Bush administration. And so, Rice has taken what negotiation experts call a "fixed pie" approach - any gain by the other side is a loss for the people she represents (and they aren't us). Loss is not what the U.S. does or anything that could be construed as such. We are in the business of crafting win perceptions from obvious defeats.

Why would Rice take an anti-negotiation stance? Is she incapable? Her track record before working in the Bush administration suggests otherwise. The simple answer is that she works with and for people who prefer bullying and war. Negotiation for them is something one pretends to do or leaves to other countries. When it fails, as it inevitably must when so little is done to facilitate success, the only option is to walk away or attack.

This administration does not walk away from the threats it chooses to notice. It walks away from global warming, Katrina victims, Darfur, and a host of other atrocities. "We do not negotiate with terrorists," is ludicrous banter because, frankly, we do not negotiate with anyone who does not do as we say. Show me a true negotiation expert in the Bush administration. Such people are visibly absent. Those remaining know how to walk a step or two behind the president, something even our guests are forced to do. They know where to place flags and how to meet and greet. But they do not participate in critical international dialogue. Bolton at the U.N. can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. And to many leaders of other countries, Rice is the wake-up-call before the hit man arrives. Nice suits, nice smile, nothing new to offer.

While writing this blog I thought of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." And negotiation as the road our nation continues to reject. Of this road Frost wrote:

"Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference."