Former prisoner Paul Whelan being greeted by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden on his arrival in the US.
“The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy,” President Biden said in announcing the release of 16 people from Russia—including five Germans and seven Russian citizens. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also reiterated that the prisoner exchange was “a feat of diplomacy.” Vice-President Kamala Harris said the release was “an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy.” While Biden, Sullivan and Harris praised diplomacy, can the recent exchange be considered a boost for diplomacy and multilateralism?
We are learning more and more about the negotiations leading up to the swap. The New York Timesdevoted almost two full pages plus an article by Opinion columnist Masha Gessen describing the ins and outs of the deal. There is even competition about who is responsible for the prisoner exchange’s success. Politico ran a story entitled; “Everyone wants a piece of the swapped prisoners’ story,” on how different individuals and agencies want to take credit.
Besides the welcome return of the prisoners, a serious boost to negotiation and diplomacy would have been most welcomed at this point in history. It is a tough time for diplomats and diplomacy. The United Nations, the pinnacle of international diplomacy and multilateralism, has done little to stop the fighting in Gaza or Ukraine or the famine in a region of Sudan recently declared by a group of independent nutrition experts.
But the diplomacy described by Biden was very limited. He was particularly effusive about the role played by the United States’ allies: “I am grateful to our allies who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome— including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey. This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer,” he said, an easy dig at Donald Trump’s America First isolationism.
In praising diplomacy, Biden only mentioned working with “allies” and “friends,” and no one else. But that’s not what diplomacy is all about as Melvin Goodman pointed out in his recent counterpunch article Biden Believes He Doesn’t Have to Talk to Putin – CounterPunch.org
What about working with those not considered friends or allies? It is more than obvious that the prisoner swap was made through contacts with Russia. The New York Times reported; “A turning point [in the negotiations] came on June 25, when a group of Central Intelligence Agency officials sat across from their Russian counterparts during a secret meeting in a Middle East capital.” According to theTimes’ reporters, “Quiet negotiations between the United States and Russia over a possible prisoner swap had dragged on for more than a year.”
Why so negative? “dragged on”? At least the United States and Russian officials were talking about something positive like how to arrive at a solution to exchanging prisoners rather than just updating Cold War insults from afar.
But any link between talking about the prisoner swap and some larger détente was quickly rejected. “American officials…insisted that the prisoner swap was by no means the advent of a new détente between Washington and Moscow,” the Times’ article went on. “Instead, they [American officials] maintained, it was a deal driven by cold calculations of national interest, a deal in which every side got something it wanted.”
Thinking about how the swap could lead to some peace negotiation between the United States and Moscow over ending the Ukraine war? No way. The swap deal was “driven by cold calculations of national interest”. No fuzzy, warm, global interest in cooperation, collaboration or compromise. According to U.S. officials, the swap was merely a very specific one-off, win-win situation with no greater consequences such as much-needed confidence building measures between Washington and Moscow.
Thus, Biden’s declaration of “a feat of diplomacy” is finally undiplomatic. As Tatiana Stanovaya wrote on the Carnegie Politika website: “Expectations that the exchange is the first step toward de-escalation and peace talks are seriously over-inflated. Even if the exchange can be considered a success, it was a success against all the odds. It was conducted very differently from the 2010 swap in which the United States gave up ten Russian sleeper agents in exchange for four Russians. Back then, the swap was framed as a reset in bilateral relations. This time, it was more like a divorcing couple dividing up their assets.”
Jake Sullivan’s recounting of the swap emphasized different actors, various States and various individuals, but nowhere did he mention the multilateral system. Praiseworthy mention of calls to a chancellor or prime minister nowhere included calls to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres or any other U.N. official. Multinational to Biden and Sullivan does not include the U.N. or any part of the multilateral system.
The distinction between multinational diplomatic relations and multilateral diplomatic relations is key. While Biden and Sullivan can claim credit for bringing the prisoners home through negotiations among various countries, they cannot claim credit for boosting multilateralism and multilateral diplomacy in general. By emphasizing the positive role of allies and friends, they have downplayed the negotiations with Moscow and the larger role negotiation and multilateral diplomacy can play.
More emphasis on the negotiations with Russia would have shown the importance of negotiating with those who are not friends and allies. Those types of negotiations are the real basis of diplomacy. And including the U.N. somehow in the negotiations would have given the multilateral system a needed boost.
