408800356 ROSE 王子芸

International negotiation midterm-

Bridge of spies
The Bridge of spies is based on a true story. This happened during the Cold war, an American
lawyer James Donovan defended the accused Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel. Due
to the US-Soviet relations being tense at that time, James took the case reluctantly, but he still
tried his best to defend Rudolf for his rights. Although the verdict was lost in the end, they
had a great friendship. Afterward, the US’s plane was unfortunately shot down by the Soviet
military during a classified mission. Therefore, the Soviet Union used the pilot as a
bargaining chip, hoping to exchange for Rudolf, who held countless crucial secrets. And who
hosted the hostage exchange negotiation between the United States and the Soviet Union was
the lawyer James. Nevertheless, there was also a college student who got caught in East-
Germany at that time, which increased the difficulty for James to save two people at once.
Eventually, the negotiation was successful and made James become the hero of America.

The first thing that came to my mind after i watched this movie is : How
can we blame a person responsible for his or her job? The movie’s lead
actor James, who was disliked by the public, even received death threats
because he defended Rudolf, a Soviet Union intelligence officer. James
defended him impartially and without any bias, he was wrong? 「 Everyone
is equal before the law」From my point of view, this is one of the main
ideas that the film wants to convey to us, even if a spy from enemy
countries has a chance of fair trial. The lead actor James is honest and
persistent. In the patriotic and anti-communist atmosphere at that
time, James still persis in commuting his sentence to the end, and didn’t
influenced by others’ opinion. If it had a different lawyer today, maybe
the story wouldn't be like this.

In the negotiation, persistence is one of the most important factors that can make us obtain
the goal. In the Bridge of spies, James insists on his condition and sticks to the goal, he
hardly compromises. Even in a hardship environment he never gives up.Also, he knows how
to use the bargaining chips wisely. Maybe his first intention was not to use Rudolf as a cheer,
but he did hold a strengthened chip. Further, James knows his enemy well. James knows the
other party's important needs, the Soviet Union was afraid that Rudolf may reveal their secret
obviously. If they refuse to negotiate, Rudolf may be too disappointed to keep the secrets,
because he wanted to go home badly. That was the important message for the Soviet Union
government to reassess the intelligence value of unidentified Soviet spies and to make Soviet
negotiators willing to negotiate again. Once more, James would analyze who has the power,
he wouldn’t waste time talking to someone who couldn't make a decision. Like, in the
beginning he was trying to talk to East-Germany, then he found out that they still needed to
take the order from the Soviet Union, so he decided to talk to the Soviet Union rather than
East Germany.
To sum up these important factors to negotiation, I think the most important one is
persistence. Persistence is the basis of bargaining, we need to insist on what the goal is and
cannot be affected by others. It is the hard part, because just like the movie, if James got
influenced by the death threats and public opinion, Rudolf may die because of the trial. If he
gave up in East Germany because of the various difficulties, the negotiation wouldn’t
succeed. This is also the part I like the most in the movie.

There are two parts of the movie I like the most, first is when Rudolf said: “Would it help?”
and another is at the end of the movie James said: you can only believe in what you have
done, and the opinions of others are not important. ( I don’t really remember the sentence
exactly, but i try to write down the meaning. ) These two things are really useful in my life,
sometimes, I am too anxious about something I cannot do anything to change, but I still
worry about it. Worrying won’t help anything, I should just let it go. Also, in my generation,
almost everybody cares about others’ opinions because of social media. We should focus on
ourselves and what we do instead of others. I really like the movie a lot. In addition to the
negotiation skills, there are still many life lessons worth learning. I must take time to watch it
again.