"What we can do is to explain as clearly as possible what the benefits would be of him going down one path, and what the potential consequences would be if he chooses another path"
About this Quote
Diplomacy rarely sounds like thunder; it sounds like risk management dressed up as calm instruction. Mitchell Reiss frames statecraft as a guided choice architecture: not coercion, not pleading, but a curated menu of incentives and penalties. The key move is in the pronouns. "What we can do" quietly limits agency, suggesting constraints - legal, political, allied - while still projecting control. "Explain as clearly as possible" signals that the decisive battlefield is narrative: the fight to define what counts as a "benefit" and what counts as a "consequence."
The repeated "path" metaphor softens what could otherwise read as a threat. Paths imply autonomy, even destiny; they make escalation feel like the natural outcome of someone else's steps. That rhetorical gentleness is the subtextual steel. When a diplomat says "potential consequences", everyone in the room hears "sanctions", "isolation", "aid suspension", maybe worse - but the conditional phrasing preserves deniability and keeps doors open. It also shifts responsibility: if the other party suffers, it's because they "choose" the wrong route.
Contextually, this is classic signaling to a leader whose decision-making is treated as pivotal and personalized ("him"), a common frame in high-stakes negotiations where reducing a regime to one decision-maker simplifies the story for domestic audiences and allies. Reiss isn't describing a neutral briefing; he's describing leverage. The intent is to make one option feel inevitable and the other feel costly, while maintaining the diplomat's preferred self-image: rational, transparent, and not quite issuing an ultimatum.
The repeated "path" metaphor softens what could otherwise read as a threat. Paths imply autonomy, even destiny; they make escalation feel like the natural outcome of someone else's steps. That rhetorical gentleness is the subtextual steel. When a diplomat says "potential consequences", everyone in the room hears "sanctions", "isolation", "aid suspension", maybe worse - but the conditional phrasing preserves deniability and keeps doors open. It also shifts responsibility: if the other party suffers, it's because they "choose" the wrong route.
Contextually, this is classic signaling to a leader whose decision-making is treated as pivotal and personalized ("him"), a common frame in high-stakes negotiations where reducing a regime to one decision-maker simplifies the story for domestic audiences and allies. Reiss isn't describing a neutral briefing; he's describing leverage. The intent is to make one option feel inevitable and the other feel costly, while maintaining the diplomat's preferred self-image: rational, transparent, and not quite issuing an ultimatum.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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