Diplomacy Requires Sunset Clauses

When hawks complain about sunset clauses, they are complaining about the necessary flexibility that all negotiations require to make significant progress.

This latest report underscores how unreasonable the Israeli government’s position on the nuclear deal is:

“It’s time to start a strategic dialogue with the Americans and Europeans about a longer, stronger agreement. But what we need now is for the Americans to put a credible military threat, and everyone to push for a better agreement,” the Israeli official said. “We need an agreement without sunset clauses.”

The last line in this quote is telling, because it shows once again that the Israeli government will never accept any remotely realistic compromise. The hawkish fixation on sunset clauses has always been a bit of a giveaway that their objection is to any agreement that might conceivably be reached. Every arms control and nonproliferation agreement has provisions that expire, and in most cases the agreements themselves lapse after a certain period of time unless they are renewed. These are not regrettable flaws to be fixed by a “stronger” agreement. They are a necessary part of any successful diplomatic agreement.