Tag Archives: Public Policy

Call for Short, Quick Article on Dispute Resolution and Political Polarization

From my colleague, S.I. Strong: The Journal of Dispute Resolution has just issued an expedited call for papers relating to a “virtual symposium”  that will be published in its next  issue.  One of the contributors has dropped out at the very last minute, leaving one slot open for a paper in the 10-15 page range (though slightly longer … Continue reading Call for Short, Quick Article on Dispute Resolution and Political Polarization

President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 4

Political eons ago – 20 days ago, to be precise – President Trump had a successful negotiation of sorts. If you can remember that far back, that’s when the House of Representatives approved a health care bill that Mr. Trump advocated. In prior posts, I discussed Mr. Trump’s failure to win adoption of his original … Continue reading President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 4

President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 3

The first two parts of this series describe President Trump’s recent problems in negotiation, here and here.  In the continuing media analysis of his negotiation skills (or lack thereof), USA Today’s Jill Lawrence writes that he is a “nightmare negotiating partner.” Ms. Lawrence, the author of The Art of the Political Deal, says, “The only … Continue reading President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 3

An Alternative Approach to International Negotiation

I recently posted one item focusing on President Trump’s approach to negotiation generally, using Mexico as an example of a negotiation partner, and another one analyzing his approach to dealing with North Korea. MFOI Elayne Greenberg pointed me to an article on the BBC website discussing the approach of another world leader, Pope Francis.  He … Continue reading An Alternative Approach to International Negotiation

President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 2

This adds to my recent post where I cited news accounts of how Mr. Trump’s negotiation gambits about building a border wall and withdrawing from NAFTA are backfiring with Mexico.  Mexican officials interpreted his threats as bluffs and hardened their positions – the opposite of Mr. Trump’s goals in the negotiations. The problem of taking … Continue reading President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 2

President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 1

You may recall my recent post, Learning from Trump’s Negotiation Failure, which provided a post-mortem of the failure to enact the health care legislation he supported.  In our session on negotiation theory at the ABA SDR conference, TFOI Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff noted that she used this negotiation as a case study in her class. SFOI Rishi Batra … Continue reading President Trump’s Negotiation Skills (or Lack Thereof) – Part 1

Fascinating Simulation of Political Mediation in Scotland

I just read this blog post by John Sturrock, a preeminent Scottish mediator who has long worked to mediate political conflicts involving Scotland and the United Kingdom.  He was active before the recent referendum on Scottish independence and he has been working on issues related to “Brexit,” the withdrawal of the UK from the European … Continue reading Fascinating Simulation of Political Mediation in Scotland

Learning from Trump’s Negotiation Failure

You may recall that, a year ago, I suggested that if Donald J. Trump was elected president, “we will undoubtedly replace Getting to Yes with Art of the Deal” in our negotiation courses. After his spectacular failure to get to enough “yeses” to enact the Republican health care bill, I’m starting to have second thoughts. … Continue reading Learning from Trump’s Negotiation Failure

Is Political Moderation a Virtue These Days?

“[E]xtremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!  And . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”  So said Senator Barry Goldwater a half a century ago when he accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1964.  He lost that election in a landslide, so extremism apparently wasn’t such a … Continue reading Is Political Moderation a Virtue These Days?

Global Pound Conference, Papal Encyclical on the Environment, and Cyberweek

We have such an incredible group of people in our community doing wonderful work in so many different areas. Forty years ago, at the 1976 Pound Conference, Frank Sander proposed the multi-door courthouse.  Before then, mediation and arbitration had been widely used in the labor context for decades but there wasn’t much else going on … Continue reading Global Pound Conference, Papal Encyclical on the Environment, and Cyberweek