Face-to-face meetings are an essential type of diplomatic negotiation with their specifics, which are studied using the theory of international relations, structural realism, and communicative action. Often the determinants are the emotions, personal qualities, and interests of the negotiators, which can distort the initially set agenda and motives of the parties to varying degrees (Wong, 2020). However, at the same time, these negotiations are necessary, as they are the most high-quality and accessible way of conveying the correct position of the state since the percentage of distortion when using impersonal channels is much higher than the errors in the emotions of the negotiators (Wong, 2020). In addition, half of the success in this stage of the negotiations is the formula, which should be as concise and specific as possible, eliminating ambiguity.
The priorities in around-the-table negotiations lie in the plane of the parties’ interests, determined in advance, at the previous stages by the formula. Unfortunately, even with a formula that meets all the requirements, reaching at least some kind of agreement is far from always possible. The parties are pre-configured exclusively for complete submission to their interests or have principled positions on which compromise is impossible (Berridge, 1989; Hussein & Malley, 2002). As a result, ideally, the priorities should be not only their interests but also reaching an agreement, ending the conflict, and other events that require the participation of two parties to complete the case.
Personal relationships at this stage, involving face-to-face contact, promote trust. Trust, in turn, reflects the guarantor of performance, which sets the stage for further negotiations and reaching an agreement (French, 2019). Diplomats scale the interests of states, translating them into human language and using emotions and gestures for practical actions that involve compromises. At the “round table” stage, this aspect has the most significant field for deployment.
References
Berridge, G. R. (1989). Diplomacy and the Angola/Namibia accords.International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944), 65(3), 463-479. Web.
French, R. W. (2019). Constructing cooperation: A new approach to confidence building between India and Pakistan.The Round Table, 108(2), 121-144. Web.
Hussein. A. & Malley R. (2002). The Last Negotiation.Foreign Affairs, 81(3), 10-18. Web.
Wong, S. S. (2020). Mapping the repertoire of emotions and their communicative functions in face-to-face diplomacy.International Studies Review, 22(1), 77-97. Web.