Summary of
The Negotiation Process: Theories and Applications
Edited by William Zartman
Summary written by Conflict Research Consortium Staff
Citation: The Negotiation Process: Theories and Applications. I. William Zartman, ed. London: Sage Publications, 1978, 240 pp.
The Negotiation Process explores different approaches to negotiation theory. The essays present various theoretic models of the negotiation process, and apply those models to particular case studies.
The Negotiation Process will be of interest to those who seek a deeper theoretic understanding of negotiation. This work is divided into ten essays grouped into two parts, with an Introduction by the editor. In his introduction, Zartman reviews the history of negotiation studies, and identifies some of the key theorists.
The essays in Part One focus on negotiation theory. Otomar Bartos presents a sociological model of negotiation. John Cross investigates negotiation from an economic perspective, as a learning process. Bertram Spector explores the psychological processes of negotiation. Zartman describes negotiation as a process of joint decision-making. Daniel Druckman takes a more formal approach to negotiation, discussing boundary-role conflict.
Part Two focuses of applications of negotiation theory to case studies. Frank Zagare presents a game-theoretic analysis of the Vietnam negotiations of 1968-73. Bennet Ramberg evaluates the tactical advantages of various opening position strategies, via analysis of the Seabed arms control talks of 1967-70. P. Hopmann and Theresa Smith use a reactive behavior model (Richardson model) to analyze American-Soviet test ban negotiations during 1962-3. Robert Axelrod evaluates persuasive power of various styles of argument via three foreign policy negotiation cases: Britain in 1918, Munich in 1938, and Japan in 1970. Brian Tracy investigates negotiation as a two-stage process of structuring and conceding, or of give and take, focusing on the Spanish base negotiations of 1963-70.
The Negotiation Process is a collection of scholarly essays which explore negotiation as a social process. This text will be most helpful to the reader who has some familiarity with academic conflict studies.
