> In particular, why would crowdsourcing a foreign policy agreement be a good idea?
I think Internet's collective intelligence could be higher than that of any person on a well defined task.
> Would you crowdsource the plan for your open heart surgery?
Desperate situations, call for desperate measures. If I did, I would ask for "qualified heart surgeons to contribute" the same way I asked about "people with the understanding of geopolitical situation".
There are people that are not in the political administrations of the warring sides that have called the situation much more correctly than the administration. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
Well, maybe - but as long as it is led by people who know the political circumstances and are willing to dig deeper.
For comparison, there was a Post-WW1 Middle-East map, which took into cultures and ethnicities. It took a lot of work to interview communities: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/th... And? It was entirely ignored. Not for another meritocratic approach. Instead - with the "cutting pies" approach, where the great powers divided the territory among themselves.
I think you are over estimating the actual negotiators. Most (if not all) are politicians not hostage negotiators. And this is even a different game.
With a prior referendum I believe no war would ever start.
Politicians, by the other hand, may know more than us but that knowledge may or may not be used in our interest.
Even if the winning open heart surgery plan was drawn up by a couple of brilliant surgeons, I'd still expect the person wielding the tools to prefer their own plan, and probably for the best