During the past week world leaders negotiated a deal about climate change in Copenhagen. I think was a courageous step to talk with so many countries with such a variety of cultural backgrounds and profound conflicts of interests about such a complex subject. It took long negotiations and there was a deal in the end that was disappointing to many. But rather than the outcome (which wasn’t so far from what was to be expected), what’s fascinating me is the process.
This AFP picture (from a Volkskrant news article) is intriguing me. These are the leaders of the Western world, the most powerful people out there, sitting together. Left is EU chairman Barosso, next to him German Bundeskanzler Angela Merkel, then the Swedish prime minister Reinfeldt, British prime minister Brown, the French president Sarkozy and on the rightmost side American president Obama. They are surrounded by their nameless advisers, the bread basket on the table and the glasses are empty, fatigue is on the faces, they look worried but also full of concentration. The setting is a conference lobby, which is visible unsharp on the background, it looks deserted, the light is definitely artificial, you can feel it is in the middle of the night at a point of time when any reasonable human is long asleep.
The setting is recognizable for anybody who has participated in a project that required tough negotiation at some point in time. It is the kind of process you have to go through when there are large conflicts of interest that have to be overcome, but also a common ground that makes it worthwhile to invest the energy. I know this kind of setting from personal experience (don’t particularly like it, but that’s life), I know it from newspaper photos as well. Typically you will find this kind of photo at the formation of a new government after elections when party leaders have just finished a heated campaign against each other and must switch their minds into now finding each other in defending a common national interest.
But I never saw a picture with this kind of informal atmosphere when a meeting of world leaders was involved. Take a look at the second picture with Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to get an idea of what a summit of world leaders used to be like. These men are posing, not a single moment the decorum is lost out of sight. The three leaders try to look relaxed, try to pretend there is no conflict of interest between them, the men behind them are trying to be formal and look good. Each single person on the photo is with his attention to the outside world, managing the perception of the event. These three men divided the world. On the photo they are wearing masks: Roosevelt was hiding his poor personal health, Stalin was hiding his imperial plans. At first sight the photo gives a smooth picture, good enough to defend the negation results at home. At second sight nothing in de photo reveals these men have been searching for common grounds, which in fact they weren’t.
If we want to live in a better world, we better get some appreciation for the ugly side of negotiations, for the tired faces and the empty bread baskets, we better get some appreciation for how difficult it really is to find common grounds.