Smart v. tough, seeing a problem from another’s viewpoint – these are some of the skills USIP’s Ted Feifer explores during a week-long program for government officials that illustrated an evolving political culture in Central Asia.

 The Art of Negotiations: Broadening Diplomatic Skills in Turkmenistan

In one of Turkmenistan’s grand university buildings, funded by the country’s natural gas bounty, I found an opportunity earlier this year to have an impact on an evolving political culture in Central Asia by introducing new ways of thinking about negotiation to 60 officials from 17 ministries and governmental organizations.

Turkmenistan Foreign Ministry officials and U.S. Ambassador Robert E. Patterson opened the week-long USAID-sponsored program on “Governance Strengthening,” held in late January in Ashgabat, the country’s capital. In addition to my session on political negotiations, the program also covered issues such as negotiating in the extractive industries and handling protocol, which can make or break the organization of high-level meetings.  I was among a group of five experts from the U.S. and Europe invited to participate. Although simultaneous translation into Russian was provided, several participants were able to follow the presentations in English, another sign of a shift I’d seen elsewhere in Central Asia in which English is being seen more and more  by the younger generations as a useful tool.

As a retired Foreign Service officer who spent much of my diplomatic career working on high-level negotiations, this was also not my first visit to Central Asia. I was one of several USIP trainers who started working in the region a decade ago. We established partnerships with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s field missions, as well as civil society and women’s groups. 

The states of Central Asia had just emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union, but old ways of doing things still prevailed. Turkmenistan was perhaps the least accessible of the countries in the region, both geographically and politically, even less accessible than Afghanistan.  After 9/11, the U.S. became increasingly interested in Central Asia. In more recent years, changes in Turkmenistan’s leadership have opened Ashgabat’s interest in working with USAID and others in adopting international practices and in building capabilities in governance, health and economic development.

My goal was to prompt participants to think more about how to negotiate and open them up to ideas about achieving their goals in new ways. I discussed the use of conflict analysis, active listening and the principles of interest-based negotiation, and found that most of the officials had never been exposed to these tools.  

I encouraged them to think about how they might want to add these skills to their professional repertoire.  Few of them will travel abroad to represent their country in negotiations, but many more will apply their skills within their own bureaucracies and society. My challenge was how to provide material useful to senior officials as well as junior staff from organizations with very different functional responsibilities. I did not provide a primer on what negotiators should do, but sought to illustrate best practices by reviewing mistakes even experienced negotiators can make. 

I emphasized the key points that:

  • Not everyone understands negotiation in the same way.
  • Preparation is critical and involves thinking as much about the other party as yourself.
  • Success depends more on being smart than on being tough.
  • There are many ways to achieve one’s goals.
  • Fixating on one issue can be shortsighted.
  • Ethics in negotiation pays off.
  • Power does not decide every negotiation.
  • Relationships can be keys to success. 

Drawing on my experience as a negotiator in the Arab-Israeli and Cyprus peace processes, and other international conflicts, I gave examples such as talks in which a high-level diplomat from an unnamed country was caught in a lie, irreparably injuring his credibility in the negotiation. I also drew from situations in the Balkans, the Middle East, East-West relations, and contemporary conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

At the same time, I noted the importance of not only the context of a negotiation but also the individual negotiator’s personality, approach and style in the process and how skill can improve the chances for a successful outcome. Government officials who can look at the world as it is and factor in that reality and the interests of their negotiating partners, can have a significant impact on negotiation beyond their borders.  Moreover, when they apply these skills at home, they can have a transformative impact on their own societies.  These are the ripple effects of the training process.

Ted Feifer is a senior program officer in USIP’s Academy of International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding.

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