Richard Haass left here in December 2013, after the negotiations he was chairing ended without agreement.
A few months later, he told a US Congressional subcommittee on foreign relations: ''I don't see the society sowing the seeds of its own normalisation, of its own unity, if neighbourhoods and schools are still divided. What worries me in that kind of environment - particularly where politics are not shown to be making progress - is alienation will continue to fester and violence, I fear, could very well re-emerge as a characteristic of daily life.''
What struck me as more interesting, though, was his observation that, 'without further progress,' Northern Ireland could not be held up as an example of peace-building.
On Tuesday, he tweeted this: ''Northern Ireland at a crisis point, the result of poor leadership, Brexit and a failure to deal with the past. Agree that the current impasse likely to lead to restructuring of its politics and/or push for Irish unification. Hoping it does not lead to any resumption of violence.'' The current impasse is, of course, just a variation of every other impasse we have had since 1998. And, as I have written many, many, many times before (indeed, I'm pretty sure I sent him a tweet about it when he was here), it is not possible to deal with the past when there is no agreement on either the present or the future. As for the 'push for Irish unification,' what the hell does he think Sinn Féin and the SDLP have been doing for decades?
I wonder, because he didn't mention it on Twitter or in subsequent interviews, if he has hardened his view on Northern Ireland as an example of peace-building?
If there are any lessons to be learned from our peace/political process, then the main one is this: don't do as we did. Don't deploy 'constructive ambiguity' as a strategy. Don't respond to every criticism with, 'Oh well, it's better than it used to be.' Don't peddle the lie that every critic is somehow 'anti-peace and progress.' Don't pretend that progress has been made. Don't lie about the toxicity of the relationship between the key players - especially when journalists are detailing the evidence. Don't tell the general public that an obvious sticking-plaster is an actual solution. Don't keep trumpeting the demonstrable nonsense that you both have the same definition of reconciliation. Solve problems one by one, rather than falling into the trap of, 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.' Don't obsess about 'the elephant in the room'; his job is simply to crap all over you at unexpected moments, so keep a shovel handy.
There's another lesson for the local parties to learn; and it's the most important one of all. Nothing is so big, or so important, that it should be saved come what may. For years we've been told that the Northern Ireland peace process is too important to be allowed to fail. The local parties are well aware of this and equally well aware that it allows them to muck about as much as they like. Serial crises. Regular stand-offs. Annual negotiations. Fall-outs. Briefings against each other. Mutually contradictory agendas. The assembly at loggerheads. No executive for nearly a year. None of this matters. The titles remain, the constituency offices stay open, salaries (even if reduced a little) roll on and the farce continues. Where's the incentive to make a decent fist of working together if there are no penalties for chaos? Why worry about tomorrow when you know that failure won't ever be acknowledged as a reality?
Richard Haass has a reputation as one of the most canny observers of international relations. He was given the nod of approval by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness to help them sort out yet another debacle in the second half of 2013. He cobbled together something which he thought they could buy into, but they didn't (I referred to his failure as the 'half-Haassed outcome). Every year since then there has been another crisis.
And that's the real problem: what we have now is just another crisis. It's not The crisis. It's not the crisis which brings down the institutions. It's not the crisis which will force the British and Irish governments to ask if the process is actually worth saving. It's not the crisis which will lead Sinn Féin and the DUP to rethink their approach to each other. It's not the crisis which will cause voters to desert the big two parties. It's not the crisis which will force angry citizens to take to the streets or create new political vehicles. And it's certainly not the crisis which will embolden James Brokenshire to raise his voice to Theresa May: "Give me the authority to teach these idiots some sort of lesson or accept my resignation."
It's just another peace process crisis. Another day not at the office. Another few months of people who despise each other trying to find a way of placing each other at a new disadvantage. At some point - and the sooner the better - someone has to tell both the DUP and Sinn Féin: "Yes, folks, failure and closure are legitimate options."