Telling someone how to negotiate is not as easy as often portrayed. The act of diplomatic negotiation involves a lot of training and experiences which are only gained in the course of the actual act of negotiation. A person‟s attitudes toward life and toward the game of negotiation have a strong, immeasurable, and probably unalterable effect on how, and how well, he or she negotiates in any situation. Literally hundreds of books have been written about the subject of
„How to Negotiate‟. There are, however, certain principles and common failings which can be described, and which no player can ignore. Six basic principles of negotiation are identified and discussed here. These are the principles to learn something about each of your opponents, talk with everybody, be flexible, never give up, explain plans thoroughly, and be positive.
i. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 1:Learn Something About Each of Your Opponents.
This advice on principle of negotiations applies to any form of diplomatic negotiation game. It is necessary to recognize the differences between face-to-face (FTF) and postal play. When you play FTF with people you don‟t know you will often encounter attitudes and conventions very different from your own. In the extreme, what you think is perfectly commonplace might be, to them, cheating. In postal play with experienced opponents you‟ll encounter fewer “strange” notions. Incompetent players can be found in any game, of course. Postal games suffer from failure of players to submit orders before the adjudication deadline. A failure to move at a crucial time usually causes significant if not decisive changes in the flow of play. Both FTF and postal games suffer from “dropouts” or people who quit playing before their countries are eliminated. Part of a good player‟s range of skills is the ability to keep his allies and his enemy‟s enemies from dropping out. In a top-class game none of these difficulties occur. The point here is that of “sizing up”. The more you know about your opponent‟s tendencies the better you can predict his reaction to a given move on your own part and the better estimation of your own gains.
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ii. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 2: Talk With Everybody
At the beginning of the game, and periodically throughout, talk with all other players, even your enemy. Someone on the other side of the board may know something of interest to you. Trade information, when possible, with those who do not have an immediate stake in what you do next. Do not be too free with the information you obtain or it may get back to your source, who will decide he can‟t trust you with more. As will be explained in the upcoming article on strategy, an expert player takes account of, and tries to control the actions of, every player in the game and he cannot do that if he does not talk with them.
iii. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 3: Be flexible
If you expect everyone to play the way you do, you will surely lose. Don‟t get emotional, though it is not necessarily bad to simulate some emotion in order to change an opponent‟s behavior. It is only a diplomatic game, and stabbing is a part of it. If you are stabbed, or someone lies to you, anger will do you no good. What you can do is make sure your antagonist regrets his action, with the idea that next time he‟ll remember and won‟t do it again. The advocates of “short-term” diplomacy go even further. They would say, forget about the stab, rather the focus should be „what is in your interest now?‟ You could find that you should ally with the person who just betrayed you. When you are at war, always think about possible deals with your enemy, especially if he has the upper hand! No rule says you must fight him to the bitter end. You might both fare better by doing something else, such as jointly attacking a third country or separately attacking third and fourth countries. Always have an alternative plan in case things go wrong. Humans, especially Diplomacy players, can be an erratic lot.
iv. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 4: Never Give Up
Keep negotiating with your enemy even as he wipes you out. You may be more useful to him as a minor ally than as an enemy. As long as you have a unit you can affect the course of the game. There have been postal games in which a player reduced to two supply centers later won, and in FTF games even one-center countries have come back to win. In the fluid conditions of many games dramatic reversals of fortune are common.
v. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 5: Explain Plans Thoroughly
When you have sized up your opponents and selected your strategy, make your approach clear. Explain in detail and at length what you expect both you and your potential ally to accomplish. If he cannot see any advantage in what you propose he will not accept or may pretend to agree and then backstab. Some players prefer to be noncommittal, to get the feel of things during the first season or first negotiation. Others like to form solid alliances as soon as possible. Whichever you prefer, be sure you put effort into your attempts to come to agreements with others; even if you intend to break them, give plausible reasoning. If things go wrong you may find yourself relying on an agreement you intended to break. If you do not seem interested in the agreement when you propose it, the other player will not believe you. For example, when you propose an offensive alliance don‟t merely say “Let‟s you and me get him”. This is not negotiation; this is an invitation to be treated as an inferior player. Instead, talk about why it is in the interest of both your countries to eliminate country X, how it can be accomplished (tactics), what other countries will
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probably be doing (strategy), how the spoils will be divided, and what each of you can do afterward to avoid fighting each other. If the attack does not give both of you prospects for a win your potential ally will be suspicious, especially if the alliance appears to favor him, not you.
vi. Diplomatic Negotiations Principles 6: Be positive
Convince the other party; do not tamely hope that his ideas coincide with yours.
Negotiation is a strange mixture of aggressive persuasion and attempts to seem innocuous, to avoid drawing too much attention to oneself. People who are good at it in postal games may have difficulties FTF, or vice versa. However you go about it, do not be discouraged by initial failures, and analyze why you succeed or fail. There is no substitute for experience.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 12
1. Define the concept of diplomatic strategy.
2. Identify and discuss diplomatic strategies used in negotiations.
3. Identify and discuss principles for diplomatic negotiations.
4.0 CONCLUSION
To conclude this unit, our discussion of the diplomatic strategy and principles for negotiation equip us with technical knowledge to guide diplomats in the act of negotiation. Strategy means analyzing the existing situation correctly, setting the right objectives, and employing the appropriate means to achieve those objectives. In the diplomatic game, we have counterparts called other countries and governments. We need to judge their objectives, intentions, strategies and limitations. We need to compete, negotiate, persuade, threaten, reward, or compromise with them. It is useful to know the strength and weakness of your opponent in the game of diplomacy and negotiation. A player who is deficient in strategy can leave you in a much better position as you outmaneuver him in dealing with the players on the other side of the board. So also the principles enable the negotiator to bargain from the position of advantage rather than disadvantage as some players like to eliminate inferior players early in the game, while others try to use the poor players to eliminate strong opponents.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you learned the diplomatic strategies and principles for negotiations. We pointed out that diplomatic strategy is the projection of diplomatic thinking and the product of character, but that it must surpass and outlive those who happen to be its authors. Strategy means analyzing the existing situation correctly, setting the right objectives, and employing the appropriate means to achieve those objectives. When it expresses the fundamental strengths and aspirations of a nation, it becomes a lasting principle which can be deployed in the act of negotiation. We also discussed the principles of negotiation noting that the act of negotiating is not as easy as often portrayed in numerous books written on the subject. We identified and discussed six basic principles of negotiation.Theyinclude: learning something about each of your opponents, talking with everybody, being flexible, never give up, explaining plans thoroughly, and the need to be positive throughout the negotiations. Above all, it is important that a diplomatic negotiator keeps
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his opponent as a friend long after the negotiation because he or she will need the support and cooperation of the person at another time.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT