Make it Mutual
Watching the back and forth this week between the Senate Armed Services Committee and the White House on methods for interrogating and trying terror suspects reminds me of one of the basic tenets of partnership agreements: make it mutual.
Early in my career, when discussing whether certain partnership terms we were proposing were "fair", a colleague taught me a simple test: "make it mutual". If we wanted to have the right to terminate after 90 days, were we comfortable allowing the partner to do the same? If not, it's a pretty good indication that we're trying to carve out specific advantages for our side.
That seems to be the issue that John McCain, John Warner, Lindsay Graham and Colin Powell are espousing: if it's fair for us to convict someone without presenting the evidence to the defendant, would we feel comfortable having a foreign government convict one of our citizens without doing so?
Next time you sit down to negotiate a potential partnership and find yourself stuck on an issue, ask your partner if they'd be willing to make it mutual.
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