Negotiations between countries aren't really very different from those between companies. You have to understand what and how your counterparty is thinking, and

Negotiations between countries aren't really very different from those between companies. You have to understand what and how your counterparty is thinking, and when it doesn't, perplexity ensues. «A senior UK government official said: “Over the last four or five weeks it has become clear that it won’t happen without early assurances on fish and mobility. We’re back to the ‘nothing agreed until everything is agreed’ world.”» «“It’s a little perplexing for the Brits to claim things are stalled when they can’t tell us exactly what they want to achieve,” said a fourth EU official. “A defence deal as a first positive signal is fine. But a positive signal for what?”» It sounds to me as if the EU people don't trust the UK people to agree on a modestly accurate roadmap, so they want more assurances, and the UK people don't understand that there's a degree of agreement between "nothing" and "everything is agreed", and that leads to a communication breakdown.