Editor’s Note

The Program on Negotiation annually bestows its Great Negotiator Awardon a distinguished practitioner of the art. The first honoree was formerSenator George Mitchell for his role in fostering the Good Friday Accordsthat helped bring peace to Northern Ireland. Other diplomats have beenhonored since then, including the late Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S.ambassador to the U.N., and U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Negotiators fromother domains have been recipients as well, among them the late BruceWasserstein for his leadership in corporate restructuring, and the environ-mental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude for their vision and creativity inengaging the public in their work.

Our Great Negotiator events culminate in a celebratory dinner after arich day of meetings, discussions, and seminars with the recipient. Carefullyresearched cases are prepared in advance. These sessions are videotaped aswell, so that, over time, this project — led by our colleague James Sebenius— has yielded a trove of material for researchers and classroom teachers.

This past spring, the program honored former Secretary of State JamesA. Baker III for shepherding the reunification of Germany, building theinternational coalition that drove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and con-vening the first ever meeting between Israel and a dozen of its neighbors inthe Middle East. In the panel discussions with Secretary Baker, participantspaid understandable attention to large geopolitical forces and well-craftedstrategy. In addition, we were struck by how many of his accomplishmentsrested on his remarkable skill at relationship building, especially with SovietForeign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in the waning days of the Cold War.The candor, friendship, and personal trust the two men developed, notwith-standing their ideological differences, was central to their success.

I wish I could report that we cracked the code that allowed Baker to buildsuch relationships. Yes, like some other impressive diplomats,he was persis-tent and pragmatic throughout his career. As to the former, he met withShevardnadze dozens of times; as to the latter,he stressed the importance ofunderstanding the constraints under which one’s counterparts are function-ing. But with Baker, it was all that and more, especially in regard to deeplistening.“A dialogue,” he said at one point,“is not just two monologues.”

That epigram fits this issue of the Negotiation Journal neatly, as thearticles offer complementary perspectives on relationships. In“The Walk inthe Woods,” Leonard Marcus, Barry Dorn, and Eric McNulty describe astructured exercise for negotiation novices that illuminates how parties candevelop a deeper understanding of one another’s needs and interests. The

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“walk” approach can be taught in classrooms, as the authors explain, butalso in the midst of an actual transaction or dispute.

In much the same spirit,a research report in this issue by Moritz Römer,Sonja Rispens,Ellen Giebels,and Martin Euwema (“A Helping Hand?”) showshow a leader’s behavior can amplify or buffer conflict between his or heremployees.Our own actions (or more specifically,perceptions of our actions)are signals that set the tone and boundaries for the acts of others.

In “Cultivating Dialogue,” Ran Kuttner inverts Baker’s remark about adialogue being more than the sum of two monologues. Drawing on Bud-dhist practices, Kuttner reminds us, if we are mindful, that what getsexpressed as a monologue really may be part of an internal dialogue, as ourown various thoughts and feelings compete for attention. Creating anenvironment in which those cross-currents come closer to the surface canhelp us build closer connections with others.

Negotiation relationships, productive and otherwise, are shaped by thetemperament, histories, values, and skills of the parties. Roles are importantas well, as Ariel Macaspac Penetrante explains in his article “SimulatingClimate Change Negotiations.” How the process is structured, he finds,affects the way that parties subsequently engage one another. Likewise,manipulating the status and voice granted to one group influences how thatgroup, in turn, relates to others.

International negotiations are also the focus of Bertram Spector’srecent book, Negotiating Peace and Confronting Corruption, reviewedhere by Stephan Sonnenberg. The book compares a set of cases in whichforeign aid was granted to postconflict societies, sometimes with anticor-ruption strings attached, sometimes not. The book concludes that suchconditions have generally had a positive impact, at least in the mediumterm. For Sonnenberg, the jury is still out, although he commends Spectorfor illuminating a critical foreign policy issue.

The relationships that I have described to this point involve negotiationsamong individuals, groups, and, in James Baker’s case, states and alliances aswell. Laurence de Carlo writes in this issue about a different kind of relation-ship, one that is familiar to many who read and write for the NegotiationJournal, namely the relationship between teachers and their students.

In her essay on“Teaching Negotiation through Paradox,” she notes thatthose of us in the front of the room often work at cross-purposes. We wantto“put something into”our charges (concepts, frameworks, and techniques)but at the same time “pull something out” by encouraging them to beself-aware and authentic. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “The test of afirst-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind andstill retain the ability to function.” De Carlo offers us wise advice on doingthat better — at least in our classrooms.

Michael Wheeler

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