Principled Negotiations and Complex Peace Processes: Reflections on Connecting Theory to Practice: Part I
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Title
Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
(Excerpt)
“These methods may be fine in the classroom and maybe in some real negotiations, but they won’t be useful in truly challenging negotiations. The framework won’t work, for example, with actors who are perceived as evil, in incredibly complex contexts like wars or terrorism, or when power between the parties is extremely unbalanced.”
This is a sentiment many instructors of principled, interest-based negotiation have encountered in the classroom. Indeed, we’ve both encountered it during our time on teaching teams at Harvard Law School, for the Negotiation Workshop, for the Program on Negotiation executive education courses, and in other similar programs. When faced with this opportunity for an enriching and challenging dialogue on the applicability of these core tenets of negotiation to intractable conflict, we are fortunate to have a unique set of experiences to inform our engagement—we are both members of Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG)’s team, working in complex contexts of armed conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding. PILPG specializes in peace negotiations, war crimes prosecution, and constitution drafting. Collectively, our early-career experience with PILPG includes: providing technical support to the Syrian Opposition and its negotiation delegations in the context of the UN-led Geneva peace process and the Astana ceasefire framework; working on efforts to counter and prevent violent extremism in Tanzania, particularly relating to the justice sector; assisting civil society organizations in Yemen to engage in peace-building efforts and peace processes; and facilitating victim participation in emerging Hybrid War Crimes Courts in Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Kosovo, and the Central African Republic. In this post and in a subsequent post, we will examine how the theories of principled negotiation play out in the field of peacebuilding.
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