Sudan at the Brink: Self-Determination and National Unity

5 Ten Principles on Negotiations

5 Ten Principles on Negotiations Negotiations with third-party mediation are the counterpart to violent confrontation. Since independence, Sudan has twice alternated between devastating violent conflicts and negotiations leading to the peaceful resolution of the conflicts. The seventeen-year war (1955–1972) was ended by the Addis Ababa Agreement and the twenty-two-year war (1983–2005) ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The search for durable peace and the prospects for achieving genuine consensual unity will continue to require an ongoing process of negotiations into the foreseeable future. I see negotiation and the closely related field of diplomacy as essentially management of human relations involving individuals, groups, or nations. Some people would argue that conflict is the normal state of human interaction and that it is futile to try to prevent or resolve conflicts; the most that can be done is managing conflicts. This can only be valid if it is understood to mean that grounds for conflict exist in normal human relations and that the occurrence of con- flict is therefore normal. If it means that conflict is the normal pattern of life, then I would consider that position both empirically questionable and normatively ambiguous. Far from seeing conflict as the normal state of human interaction, I believe that people are more apt to cooperate and harmonize their incompatible or potentially conflictual positions, and that conflict is in fact a crisis that signifies a breakdown in the normal pattern of behavior. In this sense, conflict involves a collision of incompatible positions resulting from a failure to regulate, reconcile or harmonize the differences. In the normal course of events, society is structured around fundamental values and norms that guide behavior and regulate relations so as to avoid a destructive 兩 44 兩 Ten Principles on Negotiations 兩 45 collision of interests or positions. If people observe the principles of the normative code, which they generally do, the normal pattern would be one of relative cooperation and mutual accommodation, even in a competitive framework. To call that state one of conflict would be to put a negative value judgment on positive motivations and endeavors, and on a relatively high degree of success in peaceful interaction. Even more important than strict empirical interpretation would be the normative implications of holding conflict the normal state of human existence, which would tend to foster a disposition that is fundamentally adversarial, suspicious, and conflictual. The extent to which members in a community or group reflect this disposition may depend in large measure on the culture and its normative code, de- fined as a set of shared and enduring meanings, values, and beliefs that characterizes national, ethnic, or other groups and orient their behavior. Culture itself is a product of education, both formal and informal, through which the norms of behavior that a society has developed over a long period of time are inculcated from early childhood and passed on from generation to generation. The family is the institutional foundation of education, and, in particular, of the inculcation of basic cultural values. And yet, despite the pivotal role of the family and the culture in shaping values, attitudes, and operational techniques in human relations, individuals differ even within a family in their understanding, appreciation, and application of the values involved . It is this combination of the collective cultural conditioning and the individual inclination to absorb, accept, and apply what is acquired that gives significance to personal experiences as particular applications of values, customs, and techniques of conflict resolution and diplomacy within a specific cultural framework. As a challenge to grossly inequitable order, conflict may be a positive quest for reform. It is important to emphasize that the objective is not merely to resolve a conflict, but to resolve it in a mutually satisfactory manner. This means addressing the root causes and observing such fundamental norms as justice and human dignity. In other words, where change 46 兩 Ten Principles on Negotiations is urgently needed, the status quo cannot simply be supported for the sake of harmony and peaceful interaction. Conflict in this context can be defined as a situation of interaction involving two or more parties in which actions in pursuit of conflicting objectives or interests result in varying degrees of discord. The principal dichotomy is between normally harmonious and cooperative relations and...