Back in UNPROFOR 1995, the warring factions’ protocol dictated, before talking business one had to discuss fait-divers … and drink lots of Rakjia (local brandy). Meetings with Serbs were something worth remembering. They normally tried to speak English, as a gesture of politeness, but if we (UN Military Observers – UNMO) would not bring an interpreter, those meetings would have been disastrous. The presence of a Portuguese officer in the UNMO delegation was not very common and a good theme to start chatting before going into “business”. Portugal was a sympathetic country for the Serbs, because it was a small western European Christian country, without any particular interest in Bosnia. Furthermore, the Serbs in general were sport lovers and the name of the (famous) Portuguese football player – Luis Figo – would normally jump to the table. There were also a number of Serbian football players that were, or had been, playing in Portuguese football teams at the time, but I didn’t have enough knowledge of football to support those conversations. The very first time that I felt embarrassed with my lack of football knowledge, I promised myself it wouldn’t happen again and I took note of yet another lesson regarding negotiations with warring factions:
Lesson Learned – “Learn about the sportive history of the Host Nation and its relations with your own Nation. It is not enough to know the Host Nation’s history and culture heritage, because no one will be discussing that at the negotiation table. Knowing the Host Nation’s preferred sport, its athletes and the correspondence with the Troop Contributing Country is essential to break the ice and start a profitable negotiation.”
OPen samento 