Why Diplomacy Fails: Israel-Palestine and the Iran Nuclear Deal

In a special season-ending bonus episode recorded live at Doha Forum, International Peace Institute President Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein sits down with former U.S. negotiator Rob Malley to reflect on the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal. In this wide-ranging conversation, Malley revisits why earlier talks failed, the realities shaping diplomacy today, and what future negotiators must understand if these conflicts are ever to be resolved. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

The United States and Iran have sparred for decades. But in 2015, during President Barack Obama’s second term, the two countries successfully negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known more plainly as the Iran nuclear deal. The deal was hailed as a breakthrough in much of the world, but it also had its critics. In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA, and Iran went back to expanding its nuclear program. Mohammad Javad Zarif was Iran’s foreign minister and lead negotiator during the talks. In this episode, Zarif offers a rare glimpse into the Iranian perspective, why the agreement failed, and what it would take to negotiate a new deal. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

When her son went missing in Sri Lanka’s civil war, Visaka Dharmadasa began organizing other families of missing soldiers. What started as a search for answers led her and a small group of mothers across front lines to meet with the Tamil Tigers. Soon, Dharmadasa found herself shuttling messages between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, opening a rare channel of communication that helped build trust. In this episode, Dharmadasa reflects on loss, shuttle diplomacy, and why women’s participation in peace efforts still matters 25 years after U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

In 2000, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini arrived in New York with a simple yet radical idea: to lobby the U.N. Security Council from the outside and ensure women were recognized as central to peace and security, not sidelined from it. In this episode, Naraghi-Anderlini tells the inside story of how she built a global coalition of women’s groups, developed a strategy for something that had never been done before, and helped secure the adoption of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. More than 25 years later, she reflects on what that breakthrough changed and why the fight to fully realize its promise is far from over. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

Developing countries are the least responsible for climate change, but they are the most affected by it. That’s why the Alliance of Small Island States first proposed a fund to mitigate that damage back in 1991. But 31 years later, a deal had still not been reached, and Aminath Shauna, the environment minister of the Maldives, was no longer willing to take no for an answer. Shauna describes how careful relationship building, an impromptu scuba diving trip, and a last-minute change in language helped secure the historic deal. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

Last week, we heard about a negotiation at the U.N. Security Council that led to a brief pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in November 2023. As part of the pause in the fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to exchange captives. Israeli American hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman takes us inside the complicated set of negotiations that led to that exchange. We also hear about the negotiations that finally ended the war this October. Majed al-Ansari is a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—one of the countries involved in brokering the cease-fire. He’ll talk about how the pieces finally came together. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

In late 2023, a few weeks after the start of the war in Gaza, the United Nations Security Council was at odds over how to respond. Any one of the council’s permanent members can veto a resolution—and they often do when it comes to issues related to Israel and Palestine.  Malta’s Vanessa Frazier held one of the nine rotating seats on the council. Over the course of several weeks, Frazier came up with a bridging approach that focused on pausing the fighting to allow civilians to access food and other necessities—without mentioning the word “cease-fire.” Her resolution didn’t end the war. But it did lead to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

For decades, the FSO Safer had been used to store oil off the coast of Yemen. But when the Houthis took control of the capital city of Sanaa in 2014, the government-owned tanker was suddenly located in Houthi-controlled territory. The tanker fell into disrepair, and by 2022, there was a real concern that the vessel could sink, releasing more than a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. David Gressly was the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, and his job was to provide support to the 13 million people who needed humanitarian assistance. But late one night, David got a call from his bosses in New York, asking him to do something many felt was impossible—getting the Houthis and the Yemeni government to agree on a plan to transfer the oil off the FSO Safer.  The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

When the International Criminal Court was established in 1998, the crime of aggression was identified as the supreme international crime. But countries couldn’t come to an agreement on how the crime would be defined or how the court would exercise its jurisdiction. There simply wasn’t enough time. Those questions were revisited 12 years later, in Kampala, Uganda. Host Femi Oke talks to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the chair of the working group on the crime of aggression, about how he used time pressure and a pep talk from legendary Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz to bridge political divisions among the negotiating parties and help them reach consensus.  The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.

The Negotiators is back with a new host and all new stories from some of the world's most dramatic negotiations. Journalist Femi Oke takes us behind the scenes at a luxury resort in Uganda, as government representatives gather to establish the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction to prosecute leaders for unjust wars. We'll go scuba diving through endangered coral reefs in the Red Sea with the environment minister of the Maldives, as she attempts to sway US Climate Envoy John Kerry. And we'll take a peek inside the negotiations for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended the war in Gaza – with one of the Qatari officials who helped make it happen.The Negotiators returns December 1, from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates -- and our special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.