Giving Voice to Enemy Leaders: Negotiating Over the Heads of ‘Our’ Politicians

Abstract

‘Talking to the enemy’ when at war is a contradiction in terms. The definition of an enemy as someone ‘harmful or deadly … seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent’ (the Webster dictionary) indicates that an enemy has to be confronted in order to pre-empt his intentions. In what follows we argue that since the 1990s, giving a voice to enemy leaders, however controversial, at a critical moment in the conflict, is no longer unthinkable. True, it is rare, controversial, and may end up doing the opposite of what it is meant to do; however, talking to the other side is gradually becoming part of journalistic conduct during violent conflicts.