The Negotiators

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The Negotiators

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Conflicts don’t just get resolved on their own. Most are resolved through a grueling process of give and take, usually behind closed doors. On the podcast The Negotiators, Doha Debates is partnering with Foreign Policy to put listeners in the room. Each episode features the mediators behind the world's most challenging negotiations. You’ll hear about a nuclear standoff, a hostage crisis, a gang mediation, and much more -- successes and failures that shaped people’s lives.

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  1. The Afghan Impasse, Part 1: Original Sin

    EPISODE 1

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 1: Original Sin

    All manner of the rich and powerful have passed through the doors of the mountaintop Hotel Petersberg in Bonn, Germany. But perhaps never as motley a cast as the one that arrived on November 27, 2001 to negotiate an end to the wars in Afghanistan. Warlords, exiled monarchists, intellectuals, and enemies so fierce, some had already been trying to kill each other for decades. But a key element was missing; The Taliban was not invited. Australian Iranian investigative journalist and author Soraya Lennie got the story from some of the negotiators who were in the room.

    37 min
  2. The Afghan Impasse, Part 2: Secret Talks

    EPISODE 2

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 2: Secret Talks

    By 2006, the United States and the Afghan Republic had been fighting the Taliban for five years. Neither side was poised to win. That’s when U.S. political scientist Barnett Rubin received a phone call from a Taliban intermediary that would mark the beginning of a four-year, clandestine process of “talks about talks”—even as fighting was intensifying on the ground and as U.S. troops found and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Veteran Afghanistan reporter Andrew North talks to some of the key players involved for a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations.

    34 min
  3. The Afghan Impasse, Part 3: The Art of the (Separate) Deal

    EPISODE 3

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 3: The Art of the (Separate) Deal

    As a candidate for the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump vowed to end the war in Afghanistan. But seven months after his inauguration, he changed his mind, saying that the United States should “fight to win.” A year later, with the Taliban controlling or contesting more territory than at any point since 2001, representatives from the Trump administration traveled to Doha, Qatar, to open direct negotiations with the Taliban. Finalized in February 2020, the Doha agreement was hailed by the Taliban as a victory. The Afghan government called it a historic betrayal. Veteran Middle East correspondent Sebastian Walker has the story.

    29 min
  4. The Afghan Impasse, Part 4: History Repeats

    EPISODE 4

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 4: History Repeats

    As soon as the Doha Agreement was signed, the clock started counting down to May 1, 2021—the day the United States had agreed to withdraw all troops. That gave the Afghan Republic and the Taliban 14 months to negotiate a power-sharing deal. That’s not a lot of time, even under the best of circumstances. Afghan American reporter Ali Latifi has an insider’s look at how friction within Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s administration delayed and derailed the negotiations. But there’s enough blame to go around, with the Taliban playing a waiting game and Washington refusing to intervene.

    40 min
  5. The Afghan Impasse, Part 5: The Envoy Speaks

    EPISODE 5

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 5: The Envoy Speaks

    When a diplomatic deal goes bad, the blame usually falls on the politicians. Often, we don’t even remember the names of the negotiators. But in the wake of the return of the Taliban, a lot of people have blamed one man: Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation. Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan but had served in the U.S. government since the 1980s. He was at Bonn, and he later served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations. Khalilzad sat down with reporter Andrew North to discuss what went wrong—and right—during the negotiations for peace in Afghanistan.

    35 min
  6. The Afghan Impasse, Part 6: Digital Dunkirk

    EPISODE 6

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 6: Digital Dunkirk

    Once it became clear that U.S. troops were leaving Afghanistan, the situation on the ground turned to panic. In August 2021, radio reporter Shirin Jaafari found herself in the middle of the effort to find safe passage for Najiba Noor, a 27-year-old Afghan policewoman who was the target of threats and harassment by the Taliban. For this episode, Shirin reconnects with Noor and speaks with other people directly involved in Digital Dunkirk—a mostly online, grassroots effort to help vulnerable Afghans get to safety.

    38 min
  7. The Afghan Impasse, Part 7: Talking to the Taliban

    EPISODE 7

    The Afghan Impasse, Part 7: Talking to the Taliban

    Since taking power, the Taliban have cracked down on human rights and deprived Afghan women and girls of fundamental freedoms. The outlook for productive engagement is dim. Yet there may have been a window, in the early months after the fall of the republic, to do things differently. Researcher Ashley Jackson speaks to aid workers and activists involved in direct negotiations with the Taliban as well as representatives from the U.S. and Taliban governments. And she takes a look at two intertwined questions: What might have been done differently then? And what should, or could, be done now?

    30 min
  8. Season 4: The Afghan Impasse Trailer

    SEASON 4 TRAILER

    Season 4: The Afghan Impasse Trailer

    We all remember how the story ends, with the fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban. But in this special seven-episode season of The Negotiators, we’re going back to the beginning, to try to understand why some of the world’s smartest and most experienced negotiators failed for 20 years to mediate a peace deal in Afghanistan.

    3 min

  9. JUL 24 • WONDERY+ ONLY

    What to Listen to Next: Against the Odds

    In Against the Odds, host-adventurers Mike Corey and Cassie De Pecol share thrilling true stories of human resilience that made headlines around the world. They look back at the people who triumphed against the odds, overcoming the seemingly impossible and emerging as heroes and beacons of human potential.

    5 min
See All Season 4 (9)

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Conflicts don’t just get resolved on their own. Most are resolved through a grueling process of give and take, usually behind closed doors. On the podcast The Negotiators, Doha Debates is partnering with Foreign Policy to put listeners in the room. Each episode features the mediators behind the world's most challenging negotiations. You’ll hear about a nuclear standoff, a hostage crisis, a gang mediation, and much more -- successes and failures that shaped people’s lives.

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