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The Negotiators

Doha Debates and Foreign Policy

Conflicts don’t just get resolved on their own. Most are resolved through a grueling process of give and take, usually behind closed doors. On the podcast The Negotiators, Doha Debates is partnering with Foreign Policy to put listeners in the room. Each episode features the mediators behind the world's most challenging negotiations. You’ll hear about a nuclear standoff, a hostage crisis, a gang mediation, and much more -- successes and failures that shaped people’s lives.

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20 episodes
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S5 · E9
February 2 · 33 min
Why Diplomacy Fails: Israel-Palestine and the Iran Nuclear Deal
In a special season-ending bonus episode recorded live at Doha Forum, International Peace Institute President Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein sits down with former U.S. negotiator Rob Malley to reflect on the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal. In this wide-ranging conversation, Malley revisits why earlier talks failed, the realities shaping diplomacy today, and what future negotiators must understand if these conflicts are ever to be resolved. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E8
January 26 · 31 min
How Iran and the U.S. Found Common Ground—and Lost It Again
The United States and Iran have sparred for decades. But in 2015, during President Barack Obama’s second term, the two countries successfully negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known more plainly as the Iran nuclear deal. The deal was hailed as a breakthrough in much of the world, but it also had its critics. In 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA, and Iran went back to expanding its nuclear program. Mohammad Javad Zarif was Iran’s foreign minister and lead negotiator during the talks. In this episode, Zarif offers a rare glimpse into the Iranian perspective, why the agreement failed, and what it would take to negotiate a new deal. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E7
January 19 · 39 min
How a Sri Lankan Mother Became an Unlikely Negotiator for Peace
When her son went missing in Sri Lanka’s civil war, Visaka Dharmadasa began organizing other families of missing soldiers. What started as a search for answers led her and a small group of mothers across front lines to meet with the Tamil Tigers. Soon, Dharmadasa found herself shuttling messages between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, opening a rare channel of communication that helped build trust. In this episode, Dharmadasa reflects on loss, shuttle diplomacy, and why women’s participation in peace efforts still matters 25 years after U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E6
January 9 · 38 min
Negotiating a Place for Women at the Peace Table
In 2000, Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini arrived in New York with a simple yet radical idea: to lobby the U.N. Security Council from the outside and ensure women were recognized as central to peace and security, not sidelined from it. In this episode, Naraghi-Anderlini tells the inside story of how she built a global coalition of women’s groups, developed a strategy for something that had never been done before, and helped secure the adoption of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325. More than 25 years later, she reflects on what that breakthrough changed and why the fight to fully realize its promise is far from over. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E5
January 5 · 40 min
How a Small Island Nation Pushed for a Deal on Loss and Damage
Developing countries are the least responsible for climate change, but they are the most affected by it. That’s why the Alliance of Small Island States first proposed a fund to mitigate that damage back in 1991. But 31 years later, a deal had still not been reached, and Aminath Shauna, the environment minister of the Maldives, was no longer willing to take no for an answer. Shauna describes how careful relationship building, an impromptu scuba diving trip, and a last-minute change in language helped secure the historic deal. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E4
Dec 22, 2025 · 52 min
Negotiating Gaza: From Hostage Deal to Cease-Fire
Last week, we heard about a negotiation at the U.N. Security Council that led to a brief pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in November 2023. As part of the pause in the fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to exchange captives. Israeli American hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman takes us inside the complicated set of negotiations that led to that exchange. We also hear about the negotiations that finally ended the war this October. Majed al-Ansari is a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—one of the countries involved in brokering the cease-fire. He’ll talk about how the pieces finally came together. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E3
Dec 15, 2025 · 35 min
Before the Cease-Fire, Malta Negotiated a ‘Humanitarian Pause’ to the War in Gaza
In late 2023, a few weeks after the start of the war in Gaza, the United Nations Security Council was at odds over how to respond. Any one of the council’s permanent members can veto a resolution—and they often do when it comes to issues related to Israel and Palestine. Malta’s Vanessa Frazier held one of the nine rotating seats on the council. Over the course of several weeks, Frazier came up with a bridging approach that focused on pausing the fighting to allow civilians to access food and other necessities—without mentioning the word “cease-fire.” Her resolution didn’t end the war. But it did lead to the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E2
Dec 8, 2025 · 37 min
Inside the ‘Impossible’ Deal That Averted an Environmental Disaster in Yemen
For decades, the FSO Safer had been used to store oil off the coast of Yemen. But when the Houthis took control of the capital city of Sanaa in 2014, the government-owned tanker was suddenly located in Houthi-controlled territory. The tanker fell into disrepair, and by 2022, there was a real concern that the vessel could sink, releasing more than a million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. David Gressly was the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, and his job was to provide support to the 13 million people who needed humanitarian assistance. But late one night, David got a call from his bosses in New York, asking him to do something many felt was impossible—getting the Houthis and the Yemeni government to agree on a plan to transfer the oil off the FSO Safer. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S5 · E1
Dec 1, 2025 · 40 min
How 193 Countries Agreed on the Crime of Aggression
When the International Criminal Court was established in 1998, the crime of aggression was identified as the supreme international crime. But countries couldn’t come to an agreement on how the crime would be defined or how the court would exercise its jurisdiction. There simply wasn’t enough time. Those questions were revisited 12 years later, in Kampala, Uganda. Host Femi Oke talks to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the chair of the working group on the crime of aggression, about how he used time pressure and a pep talk from legendary Nuremberg prosecutor Ben Ferencz to bridge political divisions among the negotiating parties and help them reach consensus. The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
Nov 20, 2025 · 2 min
Coming Soon: The Negotiators Season 5
The Negotiators is back with a new host and all new stories from some of the world's most dramatic negotiations. Journalist Femi Oke takes us behind the scenes at a luxury resort in Uganda, as government representatives gather to establish the International Criminal Court's jurisdiction to prosecute leaders for unjust wars. We'll go scuba diving through endangered coral reefs in the Red Sea with the environment minister of the Maldives, as she attempts to sway US Climate Envoy John Kerry. And we'll take a peek inside the negotiations for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended the war in Gaza – with one of the Qatari officials who helped make it happen.The Negotiators returns December 1, from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates -- and our special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.
S4 · E7
Sep 24, 2024 · 29 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 7: Talking to the Taliban
Since taking power, the Taliban have cracked down on human rights and deprived Afghan women and girls of fundamental freedoms. The outlook for productive engagement is dim. Yet there may have been a window, in the early months after the fall of the republic, to do things differently. Researcher Ashley Jackson speaks to aid workers and activists involved in direct negotiations with the Taliban as well as representatives from the U.S. and Taliban governments. And she takes a look at two intertwined questions: What might have been done differently then? And what should, or could, be done now?
S4 · E6
Sep 17, 2024 · 36 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 6: Digital Dunkirk
Once it became clear that U.S. troops were leaving Afghanistan, the situation on the ground turned to panic. In August 2021, radio reporter Shirin Jaafari found herself in the middle of the effort to find safe passage for Najiba Noor, a 27-year-old Afghan policewoman who was the target of threats and harassment by the Taliban. For this episode, Shirin reconnects with Noor and speaks with other people directly involved in Digital Dunkirk—a mostly online, grassroots effort to help vulnerable Afghans get to safety.
S4 · E5
Sep 10, 2024 · 34 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 5: The Envoy Speaks
When a diplomatic deal goes bad, the blame usually falls on the politicians. Often, we don’t even remember the names of the negotiators. But in the wake of the return of the Taliban, a lot of people have blamed one man: Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation. Khalilzad was born in Afghanistan but had served in the U.S. government since the 1980s. He was at Bonn, and he later served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations. Khalilzad sat down with reporter Andrew North to discuss what went wrong—and right—during the negotiations for peace in Afghanistan.
S4 · E4
Sep 3, 2024 · 39 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 4: History Repeats
As soon as the Doha Agreement was signed, the clock started counting down to May 1, 2021—the day the United States had agreed to withdraw all troops. That gave the Afghan Republic and the Taliban 14 months to negotiate a power-sharing deal. That’s not a lot of time, even under the best of circumstances. Afghan American reporter Ali Latifi has an insider’s look at how friction within Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s administration delayed and derailed the negotiations. But there’s enough blame to go around, with the Taliban playing a waiting game and Washington refusing to intervene.
S4 · E3
Aug 27, 2024 · 28 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 3: The Art of the (Separate) Deal
As a candidate for the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump vowed to end the war in Afghanistan. But seven months after his inauguration, he changed his mind, saying that the United States should “fight to win.” A year later, with the Taliban controlling or contesting more territory than at any point since 2001, representatives from the Trump administration traveled to Doha, Qatar, to open direct negotiations with the Taliban. Finalized in February 2020, the Doha agreement was hailed by the Taliban as a victory. The Afghan government called it a historic betrayal. Veteran Middle East correspondent Sebastian Walker has the story.
S4 · E2
Aug 20, 2024 · 32 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 2: Secret Talks
By 2006, the United States and the Afghan Republic had been fighting the Taliban for five years. Neither side was poised to win. That’s when U.S. political scientist Barnett Rubin received a phone call from a Taliban intermediary that would mark the beginning of a four-year, clandestine process of “talks about talks”—even as fighting was intensifying on the ground and as U.S. troops found and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Veteran Afghanistan reporter Andrew North talks to some of the key players involved for a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations.
S4 · E1
Aug 13, 2024 · 35 min
The Afghan Impasse, Part 1: Original Sin
All manner of the rich and powerful have passed through the doors of the mountaintop Hotel Petersberg in Bonn, Germany. But perhaps never as motley a cast as the one that arrived on November 27, 2001 to negotiate an end to the wars in Afghanistan. Warlords, exiled monarchists, intellectuals, and enemies so fierce, some had already been trying to kill each other for decades. But a key element was missing; The Taliban was not invited. Australian Iranian investigative journalist and author Soraya Lennie got the story from some of the negotiators who were in the room.
Aug 13, 2024 · 2 min
Season 4: The Afghan Impasse Trailer
We all remember how the story ends, with the fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban. But in this special seven-episode season of The Negotiators, we’re going back to the beginning, to try to understand why some of the world’s smartest and most experienced negotiators failed for 20 years to mediate a peace deal in Afghanistan.
S3 · E10
Nov 21, 2023 · 49 min
The Maestro of Mediation
William Ury has helped resolve some of the world’s most intractable conflicts. Here's how he does it.
S3 · E9
Nov 14, 2023 · 37 min
From Humanitarian Catastrophe to Peace in Yemen?
As the sides inch close to a deal, mediators in Yemen describe what it takes to end a grueling war.

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