Beyond Machiavelli

Trade wars, global warming, ethnic strife, oil spills, AIDS, refugee crises: as the world draws closer together on a thousand fronts, trouble erupts, clashes occur, and new problems arise. This text offers an approach for dealing with conflicting interests of any kind. With two of his colleagues, Roger Fisher, a practised negotiator, provides a step-by-step procedure for dealing with the political and economic disputes that mark this changing, often dangerous world. Originally drafted as a handbook for diplomats and senior officials advised by Fisher, this text takes in conflict management on a global scale. With its practical approach to the daily decisions that affect millions of lives, it is also intended as a resource for anyone who has ever listened to a news broadcast and wondered "What can be done?". Instead, the authors pose the question: how can we affect the way things work? Arguing that we need to move beyond "one-shot" solutions and towards a constructive way of dealing with differences, they lay out some tools for conflict analysis, and some practical applications for these tools in the international arena.
The issue may be corporate patent infringement; violation of territorial waters; GATT; or one of many international political disputes, from Bosnia to Desert Storm, from South Africa to Somalia, or among the Turks and Greeks in Cyprus. The authors break down conflict into manageable components and advance a method for refining problem-solving processes. In a series of analyses, Fisher and his colleagues review some of the most notorious disputes of the Cold War era: the Cuban missile crisis; the Iran hostage crisis; from Vietnam to Afghanistan; and from the Camp David Accords to the Falklands. They provide insight into conflict management strategies that succeeded, and those that failed to cope with conflicts of interests without resorting to violence. Whether the issue is political or economic, in the recent past or ongoing, the authors suggest techniques designed to minimize both the duration and the costs of conflict. Readers may discover that tactics used successfully to win over an adversary are equally applicable to influencing an employer, community official or business associate.