Negotiating the Nonnegotiable

Daniel Shapiro is the founder and director of Harvard International Negotiation Program. He previously participated in solving numerous international conflicts, in Europe and the Middle East. Building on these experiences, he proposes an approach to solve conflicts with high emotional stakes.

According to him, the same motivations are always at the root of these conflicts, be it a dispute between spouses or a conflict opposing two communities. If these conflicts tend to keep repeating themselves, it is because we have not been able to treat their real causes. Indeed, to put an end to an antagonism, finding a satisfactory agreement is not sufficient, you must fundamentally alter the relationship. Quite often, the conflict is linked to one of the two parties feeling rejected and seeing its identity, values or beliefs challenged. This book alerts us as to the biases in perception that hinder our judgment in such situations, and it offers valuable advice to avoid entering into a cycle of recurring conflicts.