Preventive Negotiation: Avoiding Conflict Escalation

Negotiation lies at the core of preventive diplomacy. This study is unusual in approaching preventive diplomacy by issue areas: it looks at the way in which preventive negotiation has been practiced, notes its characteristics, and then suggests how lessons can be transferred from one area to another, but only when particular conditions warrant such a transfer. The distinguished contributing authors treat eleven issues: boundary problems, territorial claims, ethnic conflict, divided states, state disintegration, cooperative disputes, trade wars, transboundary environmental disputes, global natural disasters, global security conflicts, and labor disputes. The editor's conclusion draws out general themes about the nature of preventive diplomacy.

Chapter 1 Preventive Diplomacy: Setting the Stage Chapter 2 Boundary Disputes Chapter 3 Territorial Conflicts Chapter 4 Peacemaking Processes: Preventing Recurring Violence in Ethnic Conflicts Chapter 5 Divided States Chapter 6 Disintegrating States Chapter 7 Cooperative Disputes Chapter 8 Trade Wars Chapter 9 Transboundary Environmental Disputes Chapter 10 Global Natural Disasters Chapter 11 Global Security Conflicts: Armaments Chapter 12 Global Security Conflicts: Alliances Chapter 13 Labor Disputes Chapter 14 Conclusion

I. William Zartman is Jacob Blaustein Professor of International Organizations and Conflict Resolution and director of the African studies and conflict management programs at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University.

Contributions by Mark Anstey; Anatole Ayissi; Sukyong Choi; James Goodby; Fen Osler Hampson; P Terrence Hopmann; Victor Kremenyuk; Winfried Lang; Kjell-Åke Nordquist; Timothy Sisk; Gunnar Sjöstedt; Bertram Spector and I William Zartman.