Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict - Tapa dura

A wise little book with much to say about constructively shaping the future. Offers a clear approach for dealing with conflicts of interest of any kind, particularly focusing on how to help with the persistent and complex political and economic conflicts that, unfortunately, appear to plague the world today. Probably the first primer about conflict management on a global scale. Urgently needs to be widely read. The book continues in the tradition of Fisher and William Ury's "Getting to Yes," but the focus is less on teaching people to negotiate in their own disputes than on how to help resolve other parties' conflicts...It offers a great deal of advice on getting conflicting parties to the table, viewing disputes from a variety of perspectives, generating creative solutions to disputes, and moving conflicting parties toward peaceful settlements...A lot of ground is covered in a relatively short book. Readers intent on resolving actual conflicts can derive a checklist of steps and considerations from the book. Experienced negotiators will find much of their intuition codified and may glean some new ideas. Anybody who reads the newspaper headlines and understands that conflicts--whether in the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia or right in his or her neighborhood--cause tremendous human suffering can appreciate this book. The authors, who belong to the Harvard Negotiation Project, present their case in the most readable fashion. Although they cite mostly international conflicts as examples, their insights and suggestions are applicable to domestic situations...The book goes on to present a blueprint for improving the process of coping with conflict--that is by breaking a conflict down and dealing with it piece by piece. A reader can look at the various chapters of the book as a step-by-step approach to handling conflict...This book is an important tool for civic and government leaders, students, academics and researchers, dispute resolution practitioners, journalists, diplomats, and anybody who cares to give conflict resolution a serious thought. -- Cindy Fazzi "Dispute Resolution Journal" Originally a handbook for diplomats, this book contains tools and practical advice for anyone dealing with conflict...By following [the authors'] guidelines, a negotiator can create a checklist of steps, a set of tools, and an action plan. The charts, or tools, throughout the book provide quick, clear ways to clarify thinking about conflicts.

Trade wars, global warming, ethnic strife, oil spills, AIDS, refugee crises: as the world draws closer together on a thousand fronts, trouble erupts, clashes occur, and new problems arise. This text offers an approach for dealing with conflicting interests of any kind. With two of his colleagues, Roger Fisher, a practised negotiator, provides a step-by-step procedure for dealing with the political and economic disputes that mark this changing, often dangerous world. Originally drafted as a handbook for diplomats and senior officials advised by Fisher, this text takes in conflict management on a global scale. With its practical approach to the daily decisions that affect millions of lives, it is also intended as a resource for anyone who has ever listened to a news broadcast and wondered "What can be done?". Instead, the authors pose the question: how can we affect the way things work? Arguing that we need to move beyond "one-shot" solutions and towards a constructive way of dealing with differences, they lay out some tools for conflict analysis, and some practical applications for these tools in the international arena. The issue may be corporate patent infringement; violation of territorial waters; GATT; or one of many international political disputes, from Bosnia to Desert Storm, from South Africa to Somalia, or among the Turks and Greeks in Cyprus. The authors break down conflict into manageable components and advance a method for refining problem-solving processes. In a series of analyses, Fisher and his colleagues review some of the most notorious disputes of the Cold War era: the Cuban missile crisis; the Iran hostage crisis; from Vietnam to Afghanistan; and from the Camp David Accords to the Falklands. They provide insight into conflict management strategies that succeeded, and those that failed to cope with conflicts of interests without resorting to violence. Whether the issue is political or economic, in the recent past or ongoing, the authors suggest techniques designed to minimize both the duration and the costs of conflict. Readers may discover that tactics used successfully to win over an adversary are equally applicable to influencing an employer, community official or business associate.