"There is an element of luck, there is an element of trial and error, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed. It's not as beautifully simple as it may seem when we are talking about it"
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Brahimi is puncturing the comforting myth that diplomacy is chess played by geniuses who always see three moves ahead. By insisting on "luck" alongside "trial and error", he drags statecraft out of the realm of master plans and into the messier category of improvised risk management. That pairing matters: "trial and error" implies agency and learning, while "luck" admits the limits of expertise. He is defending the profession without romanticizing it, a move that reads like quiet inoculation against both cynics (who think diplomats are useless) and armchair strategists (who think solutions are obvious).
The rhythm of the line is doing diplomatic work, too. The repetition of "there is an element" has the tone of a briefing note: measured, non-theatrical, hard to argue with. Then he shifts to the blunt binary, "sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed", reducing geopolitics to outcomes that can embarrass you either way. It's a subtle rebuke to hindsight culture, where every stalled peace process gets narrated as preventable incompetence.
Contextually, Brahimi comes out of the late-20th and early-21st century conflict landscape - Algeria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria - arenas where external actors, internal factions, and timing collide. His final sentence takes aim at the after-the-fact storytelling: when "we are talking about it", we clean up the chaos into a tidy narrative. He is warning that the polished anecdote is not the job; the job is uncertainty, partial information, and the humility to keep adjusting.
The rhythm of the line is doing diplomatic work, too. The repetition of "there is an element" has the tone of a briefing note: measured, non-theatrical, hard to argue with. Then he shifts to the blunt binary, "sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed", reducing geopolitics to outcomes that can embarrass you either way. It's a subtle rebuke to hindsight culture, where every stalled peace process gets narrated as preventable incompetence.
Contextually, Brahimi comes out of the late-20th and early-21st century conflict landscape - Algeria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria - arenas where external actors, internal factions, and timing collide. His final sentence takes aim at the after-the-fact storytelling: when "we are talking about it", we clean up the chaos into a tidy narrative. He is warning that the polished anecdote is not the job; the job is uncertainty, partial information, and the humility to keep adjusting.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning from Mistakes |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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