Being a skillful negotiator is a pre-requisite for turning ideas into actions. Negotiations permeate our interactions with governments, organizations, co-workers, bosses, subordinates, friends, and foes. Thus, analytic and interpersonal negotiation skills are essential for creating value, operational capacity, legitimacy, and support for crucial decisions and collective action. At the same time, negotiators often confront resistance from well-resourced adversaries, information asymmetries, psychological biases, and constant change. We thus need to be able to anticipate barriers to agreement, assess our no-deal alternatives, diagnose and interpret underlying interests, in addition to applying evidenced techniques to advance our interests and the interests of those who rely on us.
This course is an intensive 6-week module designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of negotiation analysis and practice. The course is required of all MPP1 students and there will be no exemptions, section changes, auditors, or cross-registrants permitted in MLD-220M.
Sections A and C - Brian Mandell
Students will apply the negotiation-analytic framework to ongoing, real-world negotiation challenges as policy entrepreneurs. Specifically, students will examine the structure, context, and role of key stakeholders in a broad range of public policy negotiations (both domestic and international) to diagnose barriers to agreement and opportunities for crafting innovative solutions.
Through analysis of case studies and in weekly negotiation exercises, students will address the challenges of creating and claiming value, managing conflict escalation, and building deal-driving coalitions. Cumulative, experiential skill-building opportunities will allow students to practice their powers of persuasion, experiment with a variety of tactics and strategies, be exposed to situations involving a shifting mix of cooperation and competition, and face important ethical choices. The exercises will strengthen students' ability to set the negotiating table, manage trade-offs and concessions necessary for agreement, and secure commitment to favorable outcomes.
Section B and D – Monica Giannone
This course is built on the belief that great negotiators are made — through hands-on practice, experimentation, and real-time feedback grounded in evidence-based frameworks. In this module, students will actively apply strategic frameworks and analytical tools to navigate high-stakes, complex negotiation challenges across a range of fast-evolving public policy contexts.
Through case studies, students will step into the role of negotiators, advisors, and coalition-builders and diagnose real-world negotiation breakdowns, craft stakeholder strategies, and design interventions to influence decision-makers across levels of power and authority. Weekly negotiation role-play simulations will push students to tackle increasingly complex, high-pressure scenarios — from two-party, single-issue negotiations to multi-party, multi-issue dealmaking.
Through immersive practice and real-time reflection, students will sharpen their strategic toolkit, build resilience under pressure, and learn to think like trained negotiators — balancing interests, alternatives, and power in fluid, high-stakes environments.
Open to MPP1 students only. MPP students will not be allowed to enroll in MLD-222M, which is a very similar course designed for non-MPPs. MLD-220M serves as a prerequisite for MLD-223M (Negotiating Across Differences), and MLD-280 (Advanced Workshop in Multiparty Negotiation and Conflict Resolution). MLD-220M and HLS 2195 (the HLS Negotiation Workshop) may not both be taken for credit.