The Negotiation Process and the Resolution of International Conflicts

P. Terrence Hopmann predicts that as the post-cold-war era progresses, the danger of virtually any military confrontation escalating to the nuclear level will make military action so risky and unattractive a means of international conflict resolution that it will be used only in the most desperate of situations. Instead, he looks to diplomacy as the increasingly prevalent method for resolving international conflict and contends that as diplomacy grows in importance, so will negotiation - diplomacy's central activity. In this comprehensive appraisal of the negotiation process, Hopmann synthesizes the vast body of literature on the subject and provides a framework for analyzing its many dimensions. The author incorporates the multiplicity of factors that affect the negotiation process, including asymmetrical resources and capabilities, the bureaucratic and political constraints placed on a negotiator and the role of mediators, other third parties, and multiple parties in large, multilateral negotiations. Included is a case-study of the negotiations that produced the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
The author identifies features of this historic negotiation that are generic to the negotiation process and offers explanations applicable to multilateral complex issues involving nonstate and supranational actors.