What can we learn from war and peace negotiations by studying great global negotiators and diplomats grappling with some of the world's most challenging problems? This course explores how modern diplomacy and negotiation can address seemingly "intractable" international conflicts and overcome barriers to agreement in civil wars, interstate conflicts, as well as on trade and environmental issues. Drawing on in-depth cases, the course will develop diagnostic and prescriptive characteristics of effective negotiation and diplomacy as tools of political, military, economic and financial statecraft.
In addition to landmark historical negotiations, the course will place particular emphasis on more contemporary diplomatic challenges. Students will examine negotiations shaped by emerging great-power rivalry, the rise of China and its competition with the U.S., shifting regional coalitions including the U.S.-India strategic partnership, the Iran War, the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, and the Russia-Ukraine war, and the role of middle powers in shaping international outcomes.
The course will pay close attention to the "how" of negotiation and diplomacy. How do officials conduct diplomacy at the highest levels? How can leaders most effectively use negotiation, diplomacy and economic and/or military pressure as negotiating tools? How can these tools overcome daunting barriers to desired agreements? We will study examples of both successful and failed negotiations.
To advance these objectives, the course will draw on case studies and videotaped interviews with some of recent history's greatest negotiators. In particular, as part of Harvard’s American Secretaries of State Project, Professors Burns and Sebenius have held hours of videotaped discussions with former Secretaries of State (Henry Kissinger, James Baker, George Shultz, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, and Mike Pompeo) about their most challenging negotiations. Through discussion and debate, we will draw out key lessons from their experiences.
This course will help students develop and practice negotiation-related skills critical to success in public service as well as in the private sector: deep knowledge of the core issues of our time, analytical thinking, debating skills, cogent discussion, and effective writing.
Also offered by the Business School as 2218. Note: The class will be limited to 90 students with the initial expectation of equal numbers of students from the Kennedy School and the Business School. A few students from other schools, including Harvard College, may be admitted.
