Sequencing, Acoustic Separation, and 3-D Negotiation of Complex Barriers: Charlene Barshefsky and IP Rights in China

Taking the perspective of the lead U.S. negotiator, Charlene Barshefsky, this article details and analyzes the negotiations that took place in the mid-1990s between the United States and the People\u27s Republic of China over intellectual property rights (IPR). Employing a negotiation analytic methodology, Charlene Barshefsky\u27s actions are interpreted to suggest a number of promising approaches to managing the daunting complexities of trade and other negotiations: recognizing the multiparty aspects of apparently bilateral dealings and capturing them in a deal diagram; carefully assessing barriers to agreement; sequencing to build a winning coalition and overcome potentially blocking ones; acoustic separation of issueframes; and, most broadly, changing the game advantageously relative to a purely tactical orientation at the table through 3-D actions away from the table

Don\u27t Bet on It

If two people have different probability assessments about the realization of an uncertain event, they can design a contingent agreement such as a bet or gamble that offers each of them positive expected value. Yet, in the process of formulating this kind of agreement, information about the basis for each person’s probabilities may be indirectly revealed to the other. The very willingness to accept a proposed bet conveys information. This paper models a process by which private, asymmetrically-held information is progressively unveiled as a possible contingent agreement is discussed. If the two parties share priors and their information partitions are common knowledge, simple discussion of the acceptability of any proposed bet is shown to reveal enough about their private information to render the bet unacceptable

Is a Nuclear Deal with Iran Possible? An Analytical Framework for the Iran Nuclear Negotiations

Varied diplomatic approaches by multiple negotiators over several years have failed to conclude a nuclear deal with Iran. Mutual hostility, misperception, and flawed diplomacy may be responsible. Yet, more fundamentally, no mutually acceptable deal may exist. To assess this possibility, a "negotiation analytic" framework conceptually disentangles two issues: 1) whether a feasible deal exists and 2) how to design the most promising process to achieve one. Focusing on whether a "zone of possible agreement" exists, a graphical negotiation analysis precisely relates input assumptions about the parties' interests, their no-deal options, and possible deals. Under a plausible, mainstream set of such assumptions, the Iranian regime's no-deal options, at least through summer 2012, appear superior to potential nuclear agreements. If so, purely tactical and process-oriented initiatives will fail. Opening space for a mutually acceptable nuclear deal—that avoids both military conflict and a nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable Iran—requires relentlessly and creatively worsening Iran's no-deal options while enhancing the value to Iranian regime of a "yes." Downplaying both coercive options and upside potential, as international negotiators have often done, works against this integrated strategy. If this approach opens a zone of possible agreement, sophisticated negotiation will be key to reaching a worthwhile agreement

Planned Reduction in Electrical Energy Use in Nashville - Davidson County, Tennessee: A Preliminary Assessment

An assessment was carried out of the impacts of the various alternative strategies designed to reduce the rate of electrical energy use in the Nashville-Davidson County area, in the light of a potential crisis in supply. Seven strategies were identified among the major categories of voluntary reduction, price regulation, and mandatory reduction. Thirty-three sub-sectors were identified among residential, commercial and industrial users, and the consequences of imposing the strategies were assessed using a cross-impact matrix. The value of the methodology as an aid to public policy formulation lies in its possible extension to allow direct participation of various affected publics