"You flatter me," Rui smiled.
"No no, I'm quite optimistic about your prospects of successfully completing this diplomatic mission based on our discussion up to this point alone," The man shook his head. "Coming back to the main point, as I said, you are correct about the means by which we identify how well a third party is able to fulfill primary interests such as food security. However, I did choose food shortage as hypothetical for a reason. It is, by far, the easiest to identify and recognize through the means that you have identified and more. However, identifying the degree to which other interests are fulfilled is not nearly as easy. Even other primary interests such as national security are more complicated than the hypothetical that I gave you, mainly because it is easier to hide."
Rui nodded. He was aware of this fact.
National security depended on factors such as the size of the military, the quality and quantity of militaristic technology, the Martial prowess of a nation; the number of Martial Artists it has, and its demographics as far as Realms went. These were far more difficult to estimate. For such complicated matters, it was safer and more reliable to directly rely on intelligence-gathering agencies and departments to directly gather such facts through espionage, surveillance, and infiltration among other things.
"However, this alone isn't enough," The man explained. "Yes, it's true that we can utilize a variety of means to understand whether or not a third party is able to fulfill a particular interest, it is also important to verify whether or not that particular interest is even an interest in the first place. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
Rui nodded. "I do. Not everybody will value all things equally. Still, there should be a broad intersection. Food and physical security are absolute. Even the secondary interests are largely universal."
Carl smiled. "Largely, yes. But not absolutely universal. Take examples that we have discussed earlier, for example. Technological sectors like communications, motorized transport, development and maintenance of complex infrastructure, and military and defense technology are all almost universal interests among all sovereign states on the Panama Continent. Yet there are examples of third parties that do not fall into this paradigm."
Rui had a feeling he knew what the man was talking about.
"What if there was a somewhat isolated society that is devoid of technological development in most sectors? What if there was an ecosystem of parties that each led a lifestyle that is so deviated from what you and I are familiar with, such that technological sectors and industries such as communications, transport, and military tech are all entirely irrelevant to them?" The man smiled knowingly. "In this case, you would be dealing with parties with highly warped interests that fall outside of standard and classical paradigms that we deal with regularly. How should we proceed in such a scenario?"
Rui smiled. "We should do our best to understand their interests thoroughly before proceeding to levy the fulfillment of them to get them to fulfill our interests."
"Correct," Carl nodded. "I'm sure you've already figured out the reason that I have brought this up."
Rui nodded. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe perfectly fits the hypothetical that you gave me. They are part of an isolated ecosystem and have developed a highly warped culture and society that is highly divergent from modern civilization. For example, their little quasi-society has not developed any dependence on technology to sustain itself. This alone would be very rare on the Panama Continent."
"That is very aptly put, Squire," Carl nodded. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe has been very inscrutable to us for quite some time, and still is, to a certain extent. Their highly unique and warped culture and mentalities have rendered most of our negotiation chips, tactics, and capital to be useless. They reject our technology vehemently as they perceive it as a threat to their culture and way of life, as well as a primal aversion to what they don't understand. This is problematic because that means that they not only reject technology but also many esoteric natural resources that are valuable because of their high utility in technology. For example, what value is Ire Slagpowder to people who reject remote communication technology in the first place? To them, this otherwise valuable resource is no more than a strange form of dust. Vilun Island is quite rich in its natural resources, yet the indigenous natives have not extracted these resources from the land, the fauna, and flora all that much because they simply do not use it."
Rui nodded. These insights matched those of his own. Diplomacy, trade, and negotiation were highly developed fields with rock-solid paradigms built upon universal traits and interests that everybody possessed. This led to a framework within which everybody operated. Diplomats and ambassadors were trained to excel within this framework, Rui had no doubt that it frustrated the Martial Union to no end that the G'ak'arkan Tribe did not play with these rules and within this framework at all whatsoever.
Perhaps that was another motivating reason to deploy Martial Artists as diplomats to negotiate with the G'ak'arkan Tribe.
"So, coming back to the main point," Carl continued. "The G'ak'arkan Tribe's interests are warped and are considerably deviated from expectations. As you promptly said earlier, we should learn as much about their interests as much as we can. In order to learn about their interests, we inevitably have to learn about them intimately, their history, their culture and values as well as their surrounding circumstances."
Carl paused, looking at Rui. "I was informed that you were given the case files and documents surrounding everything related to the G'ak'arkan Tribe."
"True," Rui nodded.
"How much of them have you gone through?"
"All of it," Rui smiled.
To his credit, Carl did not display any outward sign of surprise. Perhaps he was able to control his body just that well. Or perhaps, he wasn't surprised at all, having studied Rui's profile before their meeting no doubt.
