After 52 years of war, on the eve of the signing of a peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC guerilla force, I spoke with William Ury, author of a seminal book on negotiating, Getting to Yes and co-founder of the Harvard Program on Negotiation.
Ury was part of the Colombian President’s “kitchen cabinet” of peace advisers. He recounts a risky, secret move, deep in the jungle, that jump-started the peace process, and an exercise critical to the peace effort – in effect, writing your adversary’s victory speech, as well as your own.
Ury spoke with me by phone from Cartagena, site of the historic signing.