How Negotiations End: Negotiating Behavior in the Endgame

Whilst past studies have examined when and how negotiations begin, and how wars end, this is the first full-length work to analyze the closing phase of negotiations. It identifies endgame as a definable phase in negotiation, with specific characteristics, as the parties involved sense that the end is in sight and decide whether or not they want to reach it. The authors further classify different types of negotiator behavior characteristic of this phase, drawing out various components, including mediation, conflict management vs resolution, turning points, uncertainty, home relations, amongst others. A number of specific cases are examined to illustrate this analysis, including Colombian negotiations with the FARC, Greece and the EU, Iran nuclear proliferation, French friendship treaties with Germany and Algeria, Chinese business negotiations, and trade negotiations in Asia. This pioneering work will appeal to scholars and advanced students of negotiation in international relations, international organisation, and business studies.

I. William Zartman is the Jacob Blaustein Professor of Conflict Resolution and International Organizations at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Steering Committee of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Network at IIASA.