Muammar Qaddafi Quotes
It was very much exaggerated, this information campaign, this sustained campaign against us. But if I may... Over the process of years, it will thaw out. I mean, just gradually through contact, through dialogue, through investment.
When there are disputes between nations, sometimes one or both of the countries take the position that the other is so wrong and immoral that to negotiate with them per se gives them a credibility which they do not deserve. So at times one or both of the opponents places preconditions on discussions. Some politicians and governments have had a belief that negotiating with and enemy is a sign of weakness, and the reality is that often the other side characterizes attempts at negotiations as an indicator that they are faring well under the theory that the other side would not negotiate if they didn’t have to. Those governments which have a policy of talking to everyone under any conditions, avoid this dilemma as talks are not a sign of anything but their normal foreign policy.
Giuliani had designs on the Republican Presidential nomination. However, his professional experience had little to do with foreign affairs or foreign policy. As a moderate, New York Republican, he needed to appeal to the extreme right wing base that could veto a Republican candidate. So he wrote this article and presented very articulate, well expressed versions of, right wing, conservative, ideological principles. This one took the old principles of the British Empire where the King or Queen even talking to or writing a foreign diplomat was a great honor to be reserved for those nations who followed the Empire’s desires. A more pragmatic—more democratic view is that diplomats and leaders should talk to anyone if they might be persuasive in furthering our national interest. Despite his oratorical improvement in right wing ideology, Giuliani could not get any traction with the right wing of his party and gave up his Presidential ambitions for 2012.
Often diplomats and negotiators, coming from different cultures and different counties, and having different points of view and previous experiences, don't even have the same view of that they are there for, what is the object of their negotiations, what the problem or problems are. Sullivan observes that this often takes more time than the actual negotiations.
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, dictator, politician and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
