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An announcement of a party\'s non-negotiable demand or position, though there are variations both in form and implication:
A formal announcement that failure to undertake a specified action, usually by a specified time, will result in a specified penalty, usually involving the use of force; in other words, a very precise military threat. An ultimatum of this kind was traditionally delivered by note or memorandum and required a ‘prompt, clear and categorical reply’. Perhaps because the meaning of this term is so clear and because it carries a great deal of historical baggage, it can be provocative. David Owen, speaking of the time when he was the EU mediator in the former Yugoslavia in 1994, has reported that the Bosnian Serbs were ‘very angry about the constant use of the word "ultimatum" because it was the emotive word used by the Germans before the bombing of Belgrade in 1941’. The Serbs were lucky; on more than one occasion in the Second World War an ultimatum from Hitler followed rather than preceded military action, a practice ‘greatly to be deprecated’, notes the most recent edition of Satow\'s Guide.
An indication made by one side during a negotiation (usually at a fairly advanced stage) of the absolute minimum it is prepared to accept and/or the maximum it is willing to concede: ‘this is an ultimatum – take it or leave it’. |
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