U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in back-to-back summit-level negotiations about the future of Ukraine in Alaska and Washington. The result seemed far from what Trump had hoped for – it was clearly not the “art of the deal” that he has prided himself on.
And yet peculiarly, there is a growing sense that serious ceasefire negotiations may finally begin.
The two summits were by no means the art of diplomacy, but rather a doomed deal-making. Since joining the Japanese foreign service in 1978, I have witnessed, engaged in and followed various diplomatic negotiations for nearly 50 years. Negotiations are difficult to conduct as you desire, because there are always other unpleasant parties involved. I have never thought of myself as a “master negotiator,” but I have found that there are only three types of diplomatic negotiations.
