"There again, that is a fundamental principle: no two situations are alike"
About this Quote
The line sounds almost bland until you hear the diplomat’s grind behind it: a warning against the lazy comfort of templates. Brahimi, a veteran UN mediator from Afghanistan to Algeria, is pushing back on the international community’s favorite vice - treating conflicts like interchangeable case studies with a few local names swapped in. “There again” signals this isn’t a polished aphorism; it’s the weary refrain of someone who has watched policy people walk into rooms carrying prewritten endings.
The specific intent is operational. He’s not celebrating diversity for its own sake; he’s arguing that peace deals, transitional governments, “elections first” schedules, power-sharing formulas, and aid playbooks can’t be copy-pasted without producing new disasters. The subtext: outsiders often reach for sameness because sameness is manageable. If two situations are alike, you can justify standard responses, control timelines, declare “lessons learned,” and measure success with the same metrics. Brahimi’s principle punctures that bureaucratic fantasy.
Context matters because diplomacy is often performed in the shadow of other interventions. Every Bosnia becomes a proposed Rwanda; every Iraq becomes a proposed Afghanistan; every civil war becomes a “post-conflict reconstruction” flowchart. Brahimi insists on the stubborn specificity of history, institutions, and humiliation - the local grievances, power brokers, and social contracts that don’t show up in briefing slides.
The quiet bite is that he’s also disciplining his own profession. Diplomats sell competence by sounding certain. Brahimi makes uncertainty the ethical stance: if no two situations are alike, then humility isn’t just a personality trait. It’s policy.
The specific intent is operational. He’s not celebrating diversity for its own sake; he’s arguing that peace deals, transitional governments, “elections first” schedules, power-sharing formulas, and aid playbooks can’t be copy-pasted without producing new disasters. The subtext: outsiders often reach for sameness because sameness is manageable. If two situations are alike, you can justify standard responses, control timelines, declare “lessons learned,” and measure success with the same metrics. Brahimi’s principle punctures that bureaucratic fantasy.
Context matters because diplomacy is often performed in the shadow of other interventions. Every Bosnia becomes a proposed Rwanda; every Iraq becomes a proposed Afghanistan; every civil war becomes a “post-conflict reconstruction” flowchart. Brahimi insists on the stubborn specificity of history, institutions, and humiliation - the local grievances, power brokers, and social contracts that don’t show up in briefing slides.
The quiet bite is that he’s also disciplining his own profession. Diplomats sell competence by sounding certain. Brahimi makes uncertainty the ethical stance: if no two situations are alike, then humility isn’t just a personality trait. It’s policy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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