A riveting retelling of diplomatic history with praise from Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Tony Blair (UK), Ehud Olmert (Israel), and more. “A magisterial tome on the international negotiations that shaped modern American history.... Grand in scope and grounded in decades of experience, The Art of Diplomacy is a compelling work of political history aimed at the diplomatic negotiators of tomorrow.” -Foreword ReviewsCommended by Kirkus Reviews, which says Eizenstat writes with "authority and clarity of experience."Inside the greatest diplomatic negotiations of the past 50 years
In one readable volume, diplomat and negotiator Stuart E. Eizenstat covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord. Written from the perspective that only a participant in top level negotiations can bring, Eizenstat recounts the events that led up to the negotiation, the drama that took place around the table, and draws lessons from successful and unsuccessful strategies and tactics. Based on interviews with over 60 key figures in American diplomacy, including former presidents and secretaries of state, and major political figures abroad, Eizenstat provides an intimate view of diplomacy as today’s history. The Art of Diplomacy will be an indispensable volume to understand American foreign policy and provide invaluable insights on the art of negotiation for anyone involved in government or business negotiations.
Stuart E. Eizenstat has served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and Deputy Secretary of both Treasury and State. He is also the author of President Carter: The White House Years (2018), The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States (2012), and Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2003). He is an international lawyer in Washington, DC.
Excerpt from the Introduction: The Value of Diplomacy
Whether or not we realize it, we all negotiate as part of everyday life—with our spouses, with our children, with our colleagues at work, and in our occupations. But international diplomatic negotiations between nations are unique and have broader implications.
Diplomacy is the management of international disputes, interests, and relationships by negotiation. To avoid a cycle of constant warfare, all the major challenges facing the United States abroad require diplomatic negotiations to resolve: climate change (which presents an existential threat to our planet);global health pandemics; nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea; Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war against Ukraine; an assertive and rising China under
Xi Jinping; civil wars in Syria, in Yemen, and across Africa (accompanied by mass atrocities and destabilizing refugee flows); a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza; and, closer to home, a migration crisis at America’s southern border driven by crime, instability, poverty, and oppression. None of these problems can be solved by the United States alone.
Just as an artist creates paintings or music, there is an art to diplomacy. In the right hands, it can resolve seemingly intractable disputes between countries for the common good. But in the wrong hands, or if circumstances prevent a successful negotiation, it can make matters worse. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, for example, was a significant factor leading to World War II. Disputes between nations can be resolved peacefully through diplomatic negotiations, but sometimes economic sanctions are needed, or even war, which is not only disruptive of the established order but often unsuccessful in achieving the desired results.
In this book, I explore the art of diplomacy by examining some of the most historically important international agreements of our era, as seen through the eyes of the key leaders who negotiated them. I likewise highlight the lessons we can learn for future negotiations.
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Each of the agreements I describe has its own characteristics, but there are common threads in what led to success or failure. Every negotiator is answerable to his or her own leader and public, which inevitably means compromise—sometimes painful compromise. Success often requires putting aside historic enmities, hatreds, and prejudices, tempering tribal loyalties, and reasoning together to reach a goal in which all sides can claim victory.
International negotiation requires recognizing realistic limitations with what can reasonably be agreed on within the constraints of the parties. Negotiators cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good.
It is said that the winners in war write the rules, but modern-day wars often lack clear winners and losers (unlike World War II) and can lead to military quagmires in countries where Americans do not understand the history, culture, and local politics. In such cases, wars fail to achieve their intended political goals, as tragically happened in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where the weaker party militarily outlasted the United States. More recently, Israel has faced this same quandary in its war against Hamas in Gaza, which began in October 2023.
I have not been a bystander to negotiations. This book reflects my own experiences in negotiating economic sanctions involving Iran and Cuba with the European Union; Holocaust negotiations with Swiss and French banks, German and Austrian slave and forced labor companies, European insurance companies, and museum directors; and the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change with 191 nations and the European Union. I have related the lessons I learned.
I hope my book will enlighten those interested in history and provide lessons for diplomats in the United States and elsewhere about how to resolve future disputes in peaceful and durable ways. With all the current crises, the costs and consequences of unresolved disputes and conflicts grow. The need to resolve them diplomatically, rather than through military conflict, is more urgent than ever.
