In 2001, the Harvard Negotiation Project and Conflict Management Group founded the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiating Partners, hoping to increase the effectiveness of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and dialogue process by creating a network of negotiators, developing and disseminating common negotiation tools and methodologies, and encouraging a constructive language and culture of negotiation. As part of this program, INI faculty train high-level officials and grassroots negotiators involved in the Middle East conflict.
Overview
After the failure of the Camp David II negotiations, a group of frustrated
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators turned to Professor Roger Fisher,
a key INI advisor, and Dr. Landrum Bolling, a Middle East expert, to
analyze the negotiation process and explore the lessons learned from
the experience. The Israeli-Palestinian Negotiating Partners formed
as a result, thereby providing INI's Fisher and Dan Shapiro the opportunity
to provide insights and training to help the Middle East negotiation
process move forward. Most recently, these professors and others participated
in a Negotiation Training Workshop.
Israeli-Palestinian Negotiating Partners
The IPNP, with the assistance of INI faculty, has trained over sixty
participants to date, and aims to train two hundred participants by
the end of 2008. The systematic training focuses on the process of negotiation,
allowing participants to acquire interest-based negotiation tools, practice
negotiation skills, analyze past negotiations, discuss procedural and
structural stalemates, and understand the cultural differences that
influence negotiations. Participants have utilized the skills learned
in real world practice, with IPNP graduates serving on Israeli-Palestinian
negotiation teams at every significant round of peace negotiations,
averting multiple crises, such as the 2002 Church of the nativity hostage
standoff, and acting in critical positions in the course of the Israeli
disengagement.
The Negotiation Training Workshop
The November 2005 workshop involved the training of twenty-five participants
from the Israeli and Palestinian security, media, foreign affairs, and
legal professional sectors. During the workshop, Fisher and Shapiro
had the opportunity to instruct participants on the emotional dimension
of conflict and negotiation. Utilizing the five core concerns described
in Beyond Reason, Fisher and Shapiro discussed with the participants
ways to use emotions constructively in future negotiations surrounding
the Middle East conflict.