Strong agree. I think pretty much all treaties where a party has to give something up start out as some high-level agreement on a common goal, with details left to work out during the actual negotiations.
Take free trade agreements for example. Two (or more) countries start from a high-level agreement in principle that they want to increase trade between their countries. But each side will have certain industries or domestic standards that they wish to protect, which are incompatible with the other side’s goal of increased market access. Each will go in with an idea of what they are willing to give up, and each will have their own “red lines”. Neither side knows going in what the final rules will be. During the negotiation process, information is shared, problems are identified, solutions are proposed, and compromises are made. Sometimes it turns out after several rounds that the two sides’ red lines are fundamentally incompatible, and negotiations fail. But treaties where countries agree to give up something significant never start with all the details ironed out.
A related objection I often hear is “China will never agree to that” or “the US will never agree to that”. We don’t know that. They may not like a particular proposal, but they may still agree to it if they get a bunch of other concessions in the treaty. We have no idea what China or the US’s red lines are yet, so such objections are grossly premature.
Strong agree. I think pretty much all treaties where a party has to give something up start out as some high-level agreement on a common goal, with details left to work out during the actual negotiations.
Take free trade agreements for example. Two (or more) countries start from a high-level agreement in principle that they want to increase trade between their countries. But each side will have certain industries or domestic standards that they wish to protect, which are incompatible with the other side’s goal of increased market access. Each will go in with an idea of what they are willing to give up, and each will have their own “red lines”. Neither side knows going in what the final rules will be. During the negotiation process, information is shared, problems are identified, solutions are proposed, and compromises are made. Sometimes it turns out after several rounds that the two sides’ red lines are fundamentally incompatible, and negotiations fail. But treaties where countries agree to give up something significant never start with all the details ironed out.
A related objection I often hear is “China will never agree to that” or “the US will never agree to that”. We don’t know that. They may not like a particular proposal, but they may still agree to it if they get a bunch of other concessions in the treaty. We have no idea what China or the US’s red lines are yet, so such objections are grossly premature.