Creating a community of peacebuilders and changemakers through HKS negotiation courses

On any given day, HKS faculty member Brian Mandell has students in his class practicing the mediation of labormanagement disputes, sequencing invitations to an upcoming potluck dinner with classmates, and negotiating world peace. 

Mandell, the Mohamed Kamal Senior Lecturer in Negotiation and Public Policy, has been teaching the theory and practice of negotiation for 30 years—and has seen many of his former students become skilled negotiation and conflict resolution professionals themselves. Some, like Monica Giannone MPP 2017—now an adjunct lecturer and director of the Kennedy School’s Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory—teach negotiation skills themselves. 

“I know firsthand how powerful Brian’s teaching is,” Giannone says. “He tends to leave a mark on his students that is profound. Most students, especially those who take the J-term class [MLD- 280, ‘Advanced Workshop in Multiparty Negotiation and Conflict Resolution’], use the skills for the rest of their lives.” 

Lightbulb moments 

Giannone came to the Kennedy School as a student working in consumer advocacy in Washington, D.C. It was “like lobbying with no money, so you’re using persuasion and negotiation to try to get representatives to write and support pieces of legislation,” she says. 

On her first day of class with Mandell, she had a “lightbulb moment” and realized that negotiation connected her various interests. “I didn’t know there was a way to learn the theories and research as well as skills and tools that make you both more interpersonally effective but can also be applied to systems,” she says. Such lightbulb moments are common among students who have taken Mandell’s classes over the years. “He has changed how negotiation is taught and thought about,” Giannone says. 

Left to right: Brian Mandell; Kessely Hong MPA 2000; Matthew McNaughton MC/MPA 2022; Jeffrey Sánchez MPA 2011, Julie Wormser MC/MPA 2008, Krizia Lopez MPA 2023, Elizabeth Patton MPP 2019,and Gregory Adams MC/MPA 2019; and Arvid Bell MPP 2012

“These are real skills,” Mandell says about the theory and practice he teaches. “These lessons prepare the next generation of conflict resolvers and peacemakers and build capacity.” Mandell teaches negotiation and conflict analysis in the classroom through complex simulations and cases, a signature Kennedy School teaching method. “Our experiential learning courses have an impact on our alumni, and they remember them vividly,” Mandell says. “They can remember details about negotiation exercises.” Giannone emphasizes how important these simulations are. “People feel increasing confidence going through these courses. You feel more equipped, not just theoretically, but also practically,” she says. 

Recognizing 30 years of teaching and learning negotiation 

Two years ago, Giannone spearheaded an effort to bring Mandell’s former students back to campus to celebrate 30 years of teaching negotiation. The 2024 event was more than a reunion; it was a chance for classmates from across the years to learn from one another in alumni-led panels, connect, and, of course, take part in a simulation exercise. Roughly 120 alumni convened from all over the world—coming from as far as Australia. Giannone and Mandell plan more such convenings in the future. The attendees comprised just a fraction of the roughly 6,000 students Mandell estimates he has taught in his degree program classes over the years. 

Joining Giannone in the planning were two more former students of Mandell’s, Jim Tull MC/MPA 1997, and Arvid Bell MPP 2012. Like Giannone, both have been shaped by their time in Mandell’s class. A recognized leader in negotiation, communication, and conflict management, Tull has advised and trained executives from across the world. “Celebrating Brian and taking a moment to remember the impact of a professor on all of us was a remarkable experience,” he says. “If you think about what all of Brian’s students are now doing in the world—the impact—I can’t even imagine the size of it.” 

Tull came to the Kennedy School after experiencing the trauma of being held hostage by guerrillas while working for Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua. Already interested in negotiation, he successfully negotiated his own and his team’s release. “I almost certainly would have been killed that day had it not been for Getting to Yes [the influential book by Harvard Professor Roger Fisher and his co-authors William Ury and Bruce Patton] and negotiation skills.” Learning from Mandell only deepened his awareness of the craft of negotiation. 

Bell has taken what he learned at Harvard into his career. He founded the Negotiation Task Force, an advisory group focused on negotiation strategy in crisis environments, and taught in Harvard’s Department of Government. Today he is the CEO of Anadyr Horizon, a venture-backed technology company that develops predictive simulation software used by governments and financial institutions to model geopolitical crises and market risk. 

While Tull organized the alumni panels for the symposium, Bell and his team created an immersive simulation for all 120 participants in which the leadership team of a negotiation case-study publishing company must adapt to an AI-driven educational landscape. “We knew it had to be complex—multilevel, with internal and external negotiations—something challenging enough for a group like this,” he says. Reflecting on Mandell’s influence in his life, Bell adds, “He was my professor, then my mentor, then my colleague, and now he’s a friend.” 

Reflecting on the Brian Mandell Symposium, Bell says, “It was more than a chance to reconnect. People were presenting real work—climate negotiations, federal mediation, conflict zones. The insights were both inspiring and actionable. And that’s exactly what we need in a messy world.” 

In a tribute video for the event, former students also reminisced about “Mandellisms”: pithy words of wisdom such as, “In life, you don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate” and “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” 

Left to right: Brian Mandell and Sarah Canny MPP 2018; Monica Giannone MPP 2017; Brian Mandell and Debra David; Hannah Riley Bowles MPP 1994 and Joshua Flax MPP 2000; Jim Tull MC/MPA 1997

Looking forward 

Mandell and Giannone are committed to advancing research and teaching on conflict resolution and developing strong future negotiators at the Kennedy School. “More of this important work needs to be done,” Mandell says. 

As part of this effort to expand, Mandell and Giannone launched The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Collaboratory five years ago. NCRC, housed at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, brings together leaders from a variety of disciplines to conduct research, teach, learn, and engage. A document about the program explains its philosophy: “that trainings must be based on research, that research projects benefit from understanding and appreciating the context of practitioners, and that collaboration with other scholars and practitioners improves content creation and inspires new research questions.” NCRC has addressed topics as diverse as analyzing how the world’s trickiest wars have ended to training individuals to navigate the complicated international climate negotiation landscape. Its activities include hosting virtual and in-person trainings for negotiators, facilitating dialogue and convenings, providing teaching cases, and coaching students. 

At the 2024 symposium, Mandell and Giannone were excited to discuss NCRC’s activities with alumni who had graduated before its launch and were not aware of this new negotiation initiative at the School. “We wanted to bring students back to also talk about the work that we’re doing,” Giannone says. She looks forward to organizing more alumni symposia. Looking ahead, Mandell reflects how the School has grown over the years, drawing students from all over the world. There are a host of issues that international students are committed to addressing in their countries, for example, that require the skills of conflict resolution and negotiation. He describes this work as “unifying” and is gratified by his programs’ roles in “developing this next generation of peacemakers, always working to make the world better.” 

“My courses created a space and opportunity for people to flourish,” Mandell says. “There’s lots to be proud of, lots to talk about, and this work should have a thriving future.”

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Photographs by Martha Stewart