Q & A Table of Contents
Choosing a Topic
From: Student, Portland, Oregon
Question: I would like to know where to find resources for a paper I must write. I have a choice of topics: Home field/territorial advantages in negotiation, or International negotiation with one other country. Any recommendations on which topic would have more available resources?
Response: Each of the topics you are considering researching could be enormous. I would suggest you take a look at 'Negotiation Journal' published by the Plenum Press (New York) to see whether that publication has any articles which address either of the two issues you raise.
Many of the popular books about negotiation may address the 'home court advantage' issue. However, I am dubious about many of the so-called 'popular' books. They are generally not at all academic, but rather the reflection of the personal experiences or biases of the authors.
For good academic works on negotiation, I would recommend you look for books by such authors as Robert McKersie, Richard Walton, James Sebenius, Max Bazermann, and Howard Raiffa. It is possible some of their materials might address one or the other of your two possible issues.
If you are interested in an historical perspective, focused on two-country diplomacy, you may find that works by Henry Kissinger and other folks who have written memoirs on their contribution to history may be instructive. However, I would again be cautious about personal biases of the authors. Some may tend to personalize and magnify their personal accomplishments. . .
You might want to take a look at the literature about specific conflicts that were resolved diplomatically. The Good Friday settlement in Northern Ireland probably can be best characterized as tripartite, but nonetheless something that has received enough attention to give you something with which to work.
As I reflect on it, it may be difficult to find international negotiations that involved two parties acting on their own. Certainly in recent history, one is far more likely to find that a third party has been involved as a facilitator at one or more points in the process: Camp David, the Oslo Accords, Northern Ireland, the various border disputes in Latin America, etc.
Please feel free to let me know what you learn; I am genuinely curious. For example, it might be more productive to take the historical approach and analyse what factors have led hostile nations to reach agreement: deadlines, mutual interests, fear of a third power, changes in governments, economic changes (e.g. North & South Korea), etc. Let me know what you think of that approach.
Good luck and good negotiating, Steve.
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