Bargaining with the Devil, to Robert Mnookin, means negotiating with someone who has intentionally done harm and may well do so in the future: “an adversary whose behavior [one] may even see as evil.” 1 Should one negotiate with such a person or such a regime? Surprisingly, in this book, the Chair of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation argues that there are circumstances in which the wise decision is to fight the harm-doer rather than negotiate. But that decision, if it is truly wise, can be made only after a rigorous analysis of the situation. In this book Mnookin sets out a framework to help in that analysis and illustrates it by reference to eight case histories. The question posed by the book’s sub-title is stark: when to negotiate, when to fight?

By Stephen Frenkel Participants in MWI’s Collaborative Negotiation Trainings often ask how they should handle significant power differentials. Most frequently, this question is asked by those who perceive themselves to be in a position of lower power. “A collaborative approach is all well and good,” they say, “but what happens when the other side doesn’t need to buy into that approach because they have the upper hand?” My first approach is to challenge them on

Businessdictionary.com defines the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as “[E]xpectations about circumstances, events, or people that affect a person’s behavior [such that] he or she (unknowingly) creates situations [that fulfill] those expectations.”  In other words, your predictions about a situation (and therefore how you act in that situation) will cause those predictions to come true. But what does this have to do with you as a negotiator?  More than you think.  In a typical negotiation with at least