---
title: "The Ahtisaari mystery: a negotiator's legacy | Alpo Rusi | Negotiator 221"
titleOriginal: "Martti Ahtisaari Palestiinassa | Alpo Rusi |  neuvottelija 221"
episodeNumber: "221"
guest: "Alpo Rusi"
datePublished: 2023-11-10
duration: "01:07:02"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["geopolitics","negotiation"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The episode contains a commercial notice read out near the start, and its second half is one adviser's strongly held reading of a conflict that was three weeks old at the time of recording; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states both and does not adopt the episode's positions."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/339-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi-neuvottelija-221"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep221-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi/
---
# The Ahtisaari mystery: a negotiator's legacy | Alpo Rusi | Negotiator 221

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=0s) Alpo Rusi, and the sentence Ahtisaari left unexplained about Middle East peace
- [00:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=56s) Commercial notice
- [01:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=115s) Rusi's main period working with President Ahtisaari begins with an analysis of the EU in 1991
- [03:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=210s) The request to assist Ahtisaari in the presidential campaign
- [04:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=255s) Erkki Tuomioja dubs Rusi 'Ahtisaari's Kissinger'; returning to Finland and travelling with the president
- [07:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=440s) Kalevi Sorsa against Martti Ahtisaari, and Ahtisaari's change as a rejected second term approached
- [10:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=640s) Mauno Koivisto's influence on relations with Russia
- [14:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=862s) Ahtisaari believed in the rule of law
- [16:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=960s) Ahtisaari, Nevala and Halonen: Rusi's trial, and how winning it did not undo the wrong
- [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1200s) Presidential candidate Olli Rehn defending Rusi, almost alone
- [21:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1300s) Tarja Halonen's rise instead of Ahtisaari, under cover of relations with Russia
- [23:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1430s) Ahtisaari and Boris Yeltsin, the Balkan negotiations and Kosovo
- [25:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1546s) Did the Namibian mandate lead to an ambition to negotiate peace in the Middle East — the Ahtisaari mystery
- [30:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1820s) The UN once had power: the balance of forces in Kosovo and today
- [32:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=1947s) Ahtisaari in Northern Ireland, and what success there offers Gaza
- [33:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2016s) From the Ottomans to the British mandate and the founding of Israel
- [35:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2110s) The two-state model
- [38:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2280s) The failure of the Oslo process, and Yasser Arafat
- [39:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2345s) From the river to the sea: the second intifada, and Hamas defeating Fatah
- [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2480s) Right-wing forces take power in Israel; the Arab states begin to accept Israel's legitimacy
- [44:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=2647s) The rise of jihadist forces
- [57:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3420s) The endgame begins with destroying Hamas and the Arab states taking responsibility
- [58:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3534s) Ahtisaari's Aceh autonomy as a possible model for the Palestinian territories
- [1:00:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3601s) Israel is a democracy, perhaps even a European state
- [1:02:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3743s) The Middle East conflict is not a conflict between religions
- [1:03:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3816s) Rusi remembers his good moments with Ahtisaari
- [1:06:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE&t=3994s) Inner Circle: the machinery that sought a treason charge, and lost

## Summary

Dr Alpo Rusi, foreign policy adviser to President Martti Ahtisaari, joins Sami Miettinen three weeks after Ahtisaari's death. The starting point is a sentence Ahtisaari said in an interview for the book Uusi neuvotteluvalta and which kept nagging: after Namibia, did he intend to negotiate peace in the Middle East? Out of that comes an assessment of Ahtisaari's legacy as a negotiator — the Namibian mandate, the bombs behind the Kosovo mediation, Aceh's autonomy and Northern Ireland's outside verification — and Rusi's counter-thesis that the morality of foreign policy is measured in outcomes. Recorded a month after 7 October 2023, the second half is an opinionated reading of the Israel–Palestine conflict.

## The question the episode is named for

In an interview for Uusi neuvotteluvalta, Ahtisaari said something that implied Namibia
had been preparation for something larger — peace in the Middle East. He never explained
it, and the episode is an attempt to read the ambition backwards out of the method.

## The method, across four mediations

What the cases have in common is structural rather than personal: a mandate in Namibia,
credible force behind the table in Kosovo, autonomy rather than sovereignty in Aceh, and
outside verification in Northern Ireland. Rusi's own thesis runs alongside it — that the
morality of foreign policy is judged by outcomes — and the Aceh model is what he offers
for the Palestinian territories.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Martti Ahtisaari Palestiinassa | Alpo Rusi |  neuvottelija 221](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibDAORsgSE).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/339-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi-neuvottelija-221).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep221-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep221-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi/).

## Explore the ideas in depth

- [Negotiation Strategy, Leverage and Power: Reading the Counterparty You Actually Have](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/negotiation-strategy-leverage-and-power/): A negotiation guide from the co-author of Neuvotteluvalta — the sources of leverage, BATNA and anchoring in practice, using information asymmetry, breaking deadlocks, and what to do when the counterparty negotiates on power rather than consensus. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and two decades of negotiation writing.
- [New Negotiation Power: The Definitive English Framework](https://www.neuvottelija.com/guides/new-negotiation-power-framework/): The authoritative English presentation of Sami Miettinen and Juhana Torkki's New Negotiation Power framework: Power, Analytics, Interaction and Principles; preparation, roles, team design, trust and long-term negotiation performance.

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Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — The Ahtisaari mystery: a negotiator's legacy | Alpo Rusi | Negotiator 221, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep221-martti-ahtisaari-palestiinassa-alpo-rusi/, 2023-11-10. For quotes include episode 221 and timestamp.