IMAGINING PEACE IN UKRAINE - A Roadmap for Negotiations

Dear Clients and Friends,

 

In our series of applying dispute resolution skills and techniques to international conflicts so as re-apply the lessons back to managing our own disputes and negotiations, please see my recent essay below published in The Diplomatist Magazine titled: "Imagining Peace in Ukraine - A Roadmap for Negotiations".

Please visit our newly launched YouTube channel and subscribe. This channel provides exclusively informative and instructional content relating to negotiation, communication and dispute resolution.

Whether through the written word, audio podcasts or visual videos, I look most forward to further engagement with you! 

With Best Wishes,

Raphael

Imagining Peace in Ukraine

A Roadmap for Negotiations

by Raphael Lapin

With all the rage about war and the humanitarian crises in Ukraine, I decided to mitigate my anxiety just a little by trying to imagine what a peace agreement might look like between Ukraine and Russia.

Although to date there have been several attempts at official talks on various levels, the outcomes have been little more than each side tossing declarations of demands at the other in the guise of “proposals”.

If there is to be any advance in peace negotiations, the parties will need to cease to confuse demands with proposals. They must begin to jointly seek creative and innovative options that could potentially meet both sides’ interests without either side appearing to be capitulating, and therein lies the challenge! 

The Issues in Dispute, the Demands, and Possible Solutions

1. NATIONAL SECURITY AND NATO MEMBERSHIP

Dispute and Demands: With regard to national security and NATO membership, Russia sees Ukraine’s potential membership and NATO military materiel on her doorstep as a national security threat, and as such, demands that Ukraine maintains neutrality and never be admitted to NATO. Ukraine sees this demand as undermining its rights to self-determination as an independent sovereign state, and as such chooses to assert its rights to determine with whom it wishes to ally. NATO for its part also refuses to deny any qualifying state, alliance membership which it claims is contrary to its charter. To better visualize these conflicting interests see the chart below:

 Read More —>

THE UKRAINE CRISIS - THE OTHER SIDE

Dear Clients and Friends,

 

In our series of applying dispute resolution skills and techniques to international conflicts so as re-apply the lessons back to managing our own disputes and negotiations, please see my recent essay below published in The Diplomatist Magazine titled: "The Ukraine Crisis - The Other Side".

Please visit our newly launched YouTube channel and subscribe. This channel provides exclusively informative and instructional content relating to negotiation, communication and dispute resolution.

Whether through the written word, audio podcasts or visual videos, I look most forward to further engagement with you!

With Best Wishes, 

 Raphael

The Ukraine Crisis - The Other Side

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. The key is Russian national interest.” Although these words were uttered by Sir Winston Churchill in October 1939, they might as well have been voiced today.

The talks between Russia and the United States about the Ukraine crisis far has resulted in a stalemate. The good news is that both sides have agreed to continued dialogue. The final outcome can either be the catalyst for East-West relations to improve which will advance global security, or East-West relations to further deteriorate, which could potentially strengthen the entente between Russia and China. For President Biden, if managed with wisdom and skilled diplomacy, it is not too late for an opportunity to salvage his presidency from diminished ratings, and redeem him from what many believe to be the Afghanistan fiasco.

U.S. politicians, media, and news outlets are marching to a war cry. They are demanding that Russia unconditionally withdraws all troops from the Ukrainian border and are threatening an unmitigatedly tighter sanction regime should Russia choose not to comply. Again, U.S. hubris, media sensationalism, a collective national mindset still stuck in the Cold War, and an out-for-blood, sports-minded public hoping for a “team victory”, is driving US foreign policy, rather than skilled diplomacy, sound judgement and effective negotiation.

As long as we insist on seeing this crisis entirely and exclusively from a U.S. perspective, we don’t stand even a negligible chance of resolution. As Sir Winston Churchill said, the key to unlock this enigma are Russian national interests. To negotiate effectively, it is imperative that we make every effort to uncover, acknowledge and deeply understand those interests.

In this essay, I examine how Russia perceives Ukrainian tensions. This broader perspective will allow us to be better equipped and qualified to jointly design solutions that will meet their concerns while at the same time meeting U.S. interests. Read More —>

THE DIFFERENTIATION DILEMMA

Dear Clients and Friends,

 

Why should prospects hire you over your competitors?

Below is an article in which I apply sophisticated negotiation techniques to persuasion and influence in the sales context.

Should you have an interest in tools for resolving disputes, listen here to a podcast in which I am interviewed about my favorite dispute resolution tools. 

If you prefer videos, please visit our newly launched YouTube channel and subscribe. This channel provides exclusively informative and instructional content relating to negotiation, communication and dispute resolution. 

Whether through the written word, audio podcasts or visual videos, I look most forward to further engagement with you! 

With Best Wishes, 

 Raphael

The Differentiation Dilemma

In sales, one of the more intimidating but inescapable aspects of business is meeting with prospective clients and trying to obtain new accounts. We are not taught how to do this effectively in school nor do we deliberately go out and seek training or coaching to improve our skills (although that would be money well invested). We attempt an ad-hoc approach without a road map and process which results in unpredictable and hit-or-miss outcomes.

One of the more threatening situations that we often encounter is what I call the “differentiation dilemma,” and in this column, I will equip you with an approach and process to respond to this potentially perilous encounter with a greater rate of success.

While attempting to win over a new client, we may think that we are impressing them with our knowledge and acumen. All seems to be perfectly aligned as we begin to feel quite proud of our salesmanship and performance. However, that euphoric feeling can be rather abruptly shattered when the prospective client says: “So, tell me why I should hire you over the other hundred vendors who called my office last week?”

Read More —>

NEGOTIATION LESSONS FROM INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTS

Dear Clients and Friends, 

International conflicts provide a highly effective laboratory to extract profound lessons about negotiation and dispute resolution that can be successfully applied to corporate, organizational and individual negotiations. With that in mind, below is my opinion piece published in the Jerusalem Post which presents a new approach to the old Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. 

Should you have an interest in tools for resolving disputes, listen here to a podcast in which I am interviewed about my favorite dispute resolution tools. If you prefer videos, please visit our newly launched YouTube channel and subscribe. This channel provides exclusively informative and instructional content relating to negotiation, communication and dispute resolution. Whether through the written word, audio podcasts or visual videos, I look most forward to further engagement with you! 

With Best Wishes, 

 Raphael

A New Conversation on the 

Longstanding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By Raphael Lapin 

 Despite many efforts at resolving the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, there have never been any comprehensive solutions proposed that were acceptable to all sides.

That however, does not absolve us from continuously searching for potential solutions, because leadership changes; civilian influence changes; geopolitics change and generations change, and with those changes come new perceptions, perspectives, paradigms and priorities that can drive serious consideration of solutions today that were unacceptable yesterday.

With these changes, occasionally entirely new and different ideas emerge, which can potentially advance productive and purposeful talks. It is one such idea that I humbly propose in this article in the hope that it might be a foundation upon which to build further.

A brief history about the ubiquitous one-state and two-state solutions is a good place to start.

Continue Reading Article —>

FOREIGN POLICY NEWS

How, if at all, should the new Biden administration engagement with Russia change in order to best meet American interests, contain the China threat and improve global security?

When thinking about global security and balance of power, China’s 14th century novel by Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms comes to mind. Today’s complex global security questions cannot be fully confronted without appreciating the “romance” of the “Three Kingdoms”: Russia, China and the United States. However, the United States’ status as part of the “Three Kingdom” triumvirate is becoming more threatened given her recent isolationist policies; the shift of global balance of power favoring China; and the United States’ eroded relations with both China and Russia who continue to increase their global reach, power and dominance. The Biden administration’s primary challenges will be how to secure the United States’ venerated and rightful seat at the table of the “Three Kingdoms”; to restore equilibrium by asserting her weight in the global balance of power; and to neutralize the Chinese threat.

In examining foreign policy, it is helpful to use the two primary frameworks of international relations as a point of reference: Realism or Realpolitik and Liberalism. 

Continue Reading Article —>