The Negotiators

The podcast discusses the Watts truce in 1992, a peace agreement between rival gangs in Los Angeles. It explores the impact of the truce, the journey of the key negotiator, and the role of AmeriCan in conflict mediation. The podcast highlights the ceasefire meeting at a Shiite mosque, the details of the multi-peace treaty, and the decline of the Watts truce. It also touches on promoting public safety and the challenges faced by initiatives like the truce.

This bonus episode from the podcast The Closer is a complement to our recent episode about the U.S. Soccer equal pay negotiations. While the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team is among the most decorated teams in the game, until recently, its players were paid only a fraction of what the men took home. On The Negotiators, you heard from Cindy Parlow Cone, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, about the role she played in the fight for equal pay. On this episode of The Closer, you’ll hear from sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who built a career out of representing some of the most high-profile athletes in labor disputes with professional leagues. He takes us inside the team’s strategy and reveals how they got the deal done.The Closer is a show from our talented friends at Project Brazen. While The Negotiators tends to focus on diplomacy, The Closer spotlights the world of business. Hosted by Aimee Keane, an award-winning financial journalist, The Closer reveals the inside story of the deals that changed the world, as told by the people who know how they all went down. Their next season starts airing in a few weeks, so go ahead and follow them wherever you get your podcasts.

For the first time in U.S. soccer history, the men’s and women’s national teams are getting paid at the same rate. That’s the result of a grueling negotiation that ended last year, led by Cindy Parlow Cone—a former professional player who became the U.S. Soccer Federation President.  On the latest episode of The Negotiators podcast, Cone describes how far apart the two sides were at the start and how they reached an agreement. She spoke with producer Karen Given.The Negotiators is a collaboration between Doha Debates and Foreign Policy.

Jonathan Powell, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief negotiator for the Good Friday Talks, discusses the painstaking negotiations and years of additional diplomacy that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Topics include achieving power-sharing, building trust, negotiating challenges, implementing the agreement, and the issue of trust and constructive ambiguity in negotiations.

Previewing the Exciting Negotiations of Season 3: Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, US soccer negotiations for gender parity, Kofi Annan's mediation in Kenya, and more. Discover resolutions to dramatic conflicts on The Negotiators podcast.

President Vladimir Putin recently announced that Russia would suspend its participation in the New START agreement with the United States. Putin’s move puts the last remaining nuclear arms deal between the two countries into question.Last season, we spoke with the chief U.S. envoy to the New START talks, Rose Gottemoeller. She shares the grueling process of negotiating that treaty—which was finally signed in 2010. Even as Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Russia continued to abide by that same New START deal. Till now. In case you missed it the first time, here is an encore presentation of that episode.

Earlier this year, a British Pakistani man took several people hostage at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas—including the congregation’s rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker. During the 11-hour saga, FBI negotiators posted outside tried to persuade the gunman to come out quietly. Meanwhile, another kind of negotiation was happening inside the temple’s walls: between the rabbi and the hostage taker.This week on our podcast The Negotiators, Rabbi Cytron-Walker describes how he tried to humanize himself and the other congregation members in order to stay alive. Cytron-Walker told his story to our show’s senior producer, Laura Rosbrow-Telem. This is our last episode of the season. We’ll be back soon with more negotiator stories. If you have an idea for a Negotiators episode, feel free to email us at podcasts@foreignpolicy.com. The Negotiators is a partnership between Doha Debates and Foreign Policy.

The negotiations that led to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union lasted more than four years. During that grueling process, three different prime ministers came and went in Britain, shifting positions and occasionally roiling the talks. The one constant was Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner in charge of Brexit talks. This week on our podcast The Negotiators, Barnier tells host Jenn Williams about challenges he faced in the talks, including one that couples often confront in divorce proceedings: how to dismantle the partnership and still retain a measure of goodwill.Barnier has published a diary he kept during Brexit. For his full story, we recommend reading My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion.The Negotiators is a partnership between Doha Debates and Foreign Policy.

The uprising in Libya that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s long reign in 2011 was supposed to provide a path to stability. Instead, the country descended into civil war, with regional powers vying for influence and resources. An election brokered by the United Nations last year was called off at the last moment and the sides to the conflict remain at an impasse.But while official negotiations have stalled, one peace group decided this past summer to bring opponents together in Norway, where they would try to find a way forward. The group, Together We Build It, has been working on peace and security issues since 2011, in part by engaging more women and young Libyans in the process. While the Norway talks were held largely behind closed doors, reporter Amira Karaoud attended the conference and interviewed the participants. Karaoud, who is originally from Tunisia, is featured in the latest episode of The Negotiators, a collaboration between Doha Debates and Foreign Policy. 

Criminal justice advocates have tried for decades to pass legislation to reduce the United States prison population. Yet somehow, at a moment when the United States felt more polarized than ever, lawmakers managed to agree on a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill during Donald Trump’s presidency. It was called the First Step Act and it reduced the sentences of thousands of incarcerated people in federal prisons. This week on our podcast The Negotiators, we talk to Jessica Jackson, a lawyer and one of the key advocates for the First Step Act. She and political commentator Van Jones co-founded the group #Cut50, which helped advocate for the legislation. In this episode, Jackson tells host Jenn Williams how she convinced politicians from both parties to support the bill. For the full story on the First Step Act negotiations, we recommend watching the upcoming documentary The First Step, out in U.S. theaters in early 2023.