By Ira Katz
April 9, 2026
My 18-year old daughter is interested in international relations as she would like to become a diplomat. While writing letters of motivation as part of her applications to universities, we have been thinking and discussing diplomacy. The most obvious observation made by many commentators today is the dearth of real diplomacy. Even when there are negotiations they appear to be only ploys to make surprise attacks. I will list a sample of undiplomatic diplomacy below.
An important marker of the disorder in diplomacy was the negotiations between Ukraine and the Donbass separatists, after the coup d'etat and subsequent civil war in 2014-2015, resulting in the Minsk agreements. Whatever official statements have been made as to the reasons for the failure of these agreements, I take the comments made by the former leaders of Germany and France, co-signers to guarantee the agreement. After the start of the current war Angela Merkel made a revelation in separate interviews: The Minsk Agreements Were Not Intended To Be Pursued. War Instead of Peace. Followed by confirmation by Francois Hollande. Peace was not their goal, only a respite to rearm Ukraine in order to bludgeon Russia.
Almost immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 negotiations began to end the war. It appeared an agreement was reached in Istanbul but was then dropped by Ukraine after a visit to Kiev by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Did Boris Johnson really sabotage peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ? The reality is more complicated.
"A third and more important point - particularly for those of us in the west - is that the history of the Istanbul negotiations does highlight the somewhat hollow nature of the"nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine"slogans so favoured by western policymakers. Bomb-throwers like Elon Musk are technically wrong when they claim that the west torpedoed a concrete peace agreement in spring 2022; they are right in a broader philosophical sense, however, that the scepticism of western leaders about Russian intentions, their commitment to aid Ukraine and their encouragement to Kyiv to fight on all added to the decision of the government to continue to fight rather than negotiate." [my emphasis]
Former Israeli Prime Minister, a participant in the negotiations, has confirmed that an agreement was achieved.
Israeli negotiations have taken on gangster tactics more so than the terrorists such as Hamas. Consider the Israeli attack on Doha on 9 September 2025, "during the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted an airstrike in the Leqtaifiya district of Qatar's capital Doha, targeting the leadership of Hamas, housed in a Qatari government residential complex, as it met to discuss an active ceasefire proposal presented by the United States. The attack killed and injured Hamas members, Qatari security forces, and multiple civilians. The attack was Israel's first known attack in Qatar, and its first direct strike on a Gulf Cooperation Council member."
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed early on July 31, 2024 in an affluent neighborhood of Tehran, soon after attending the inauguration of President Masud Pezeshkian in parliament. "His killing is the latest in a string of assassinations in and around the Iranian capital in recent years that the Islamic republic has blamed on Israel, which has not claimed any of the incidents."
A mostly overlooked event in the west occurred on December 28, 2025. Trump says he had 'very productive' call with Putin ahead of Zelenskiy meeting. In fact, he told him to stay by the phone as he would call back to report on his call with the Ukrainian leader. During that interlude Ukraine launched a missile strike that Russia claims was an attack on Putin's residence. The Russians have presented their evidence, the Americans have claimed it was an attack on a nearby military facility. In any case, don't expect the Russians to spend much more effort in further negotiations.
Perhaps the greatest insult to professional diplomats is the exclusive use by Trump of his friend and son-in-law, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, real estate wheeler dealers,in important negotiations. Furthermore, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has a second incompatible role as National Security Advisor, acts much more like a military advisor than a diplomat.
For comic relief I note the practice of European leaders such as the NATO head honcho, Mark Rutte, who has called Donald Trump "daddy." Read here, The real reason Donald Trump wants other leaders to call him daddy.
Another marker of the ill health of diplomacy in Europe is the career of Kaja Kallas. The former Estonian prime minister is the current High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In spite of being "stunning and brave" as Alex Cristoforu of the Duran describes her, nobody wants to talk to her, Kaja Kallas meeting with Marco Rubio cancelled due to scheduling issues. In fact, her thoughts and actions are dominated by her hatred of Russia. " Kallas' approach to diplomacy is characterized by her directness and candidness, earning her a reputation as one of the bloc's most candid voices on security." All the while her husband has been making a killing breaking her great achievement, sanctions against Russia. The reality is that they are all grifters.
The recent history of negotiations between the US and Iran, twice interrupted by sneak attacks, has been called a "mockery" by Lt Col Daniel Davis . Here is a snippet of the transcript of a recent podcast. "President Trump said remember I'm going to move first it was a 48 hour deadline and then it was a 5-day deadline and then he pushed it back to 10 days for more diplomacy. That's what he said. That's what Abbas says. Iran will exact a heavy price for these Israeli crimes. meaning that there's there's no diplomacy at all. It's there's it's it's a mockery of diplomacy. So clearly the United States is still on a military path even though I don't know if it's just for domestic purposes to make give a fig leaf cover to people in either the West or the United States in particular to show no, we're trying diplomacy. We're trying to settle this when I mean anyone who knows anything about this understands it's a mockery of diplomacy. It's not even a fig leaf. It's just a mockery."
I think a more modest lack of diplomacy than the previous examples is President Trump's comments about the leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In a spectacular and vulgar diatribe, perhaps applicable to a teenage gang member, Trump said, "He didn't think this was going to happen He didn't think he'd be kissing my a** He thought it'd be just another American president that was a loserwith a country that was going downhill. But now he has to be nice to me. You tell him he better be nice to me." This strikes me as a strange way for diplomacy to die.
Upon finishing this essay President Trump threatened civilizational annihilation against Iran, perhaps with nuclear weapons. In literally the last minutes before his deadline for armageddon, he announced a ceasefire. Given the historical context I have described above it is not likely that this diplomatic moment a la Lazurus will lead to a lasting peace. Nevertheless, we can hope and pray that it does.