RECENT BOOK ON INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATION (RELEVANT TO MEDIATION, ARBITRATION ETC.)

At Jeff Thompson's suggestion, I am posting a copy (below) of a letter I sent recently to a range of people involved in dispute management.

Cheers,

Tony

" I am sending this message to a few lawyers, academics and other people with direct or indirect involvement in negotiation, mediation and other forms of ADR. If addressees think my new book on negotiation might interest colleagues or other acquaintances, please pass this message to them. One review, from a mediator's perspective, is in a recent newsletter of LEADR (Leading Edge Association of Dispute Resolvers), a prominent association of mediators and arbitrators in Australia and New Zealand. The link to this review is http://www.leadr.com.au/articles/BR-Tug-of-war.pdf. The review is very positive but the suggestion that the book is deeply theoretical may dissuade potential readers who are looking for a system they can use in their practice. The theory in fact underpins a very accessible and usable system of analysis and planning. There is another review on Amazon.com; also a synopsis of the book.

Bibliographic details: Tony English (2010) “Tug of War: The Tension Concept and the Art of International Negotiation.” Common Ground Publishing: Melbourne/Champaign, Illinois. Social Sciences Series of The University Press. ISBN 978 1 86335 673 2 (paperback). 312 pages.

The book is based on research with outstanding international negotiators in business, diplomacy (Tracks 1 and 2), and hostage release. Several informants are identified on the attached PDF of the cover. Tug%20of%20War-COVER_LowRes.pdf Although the focus is on international negotiation, the analytical approach has much wider application (e.g. mediation, arbitration and other forms of conflict management). The book is not a how-to-do-it guide to the nuts and bolts of practice, even though practitioners could learn much from what the veterans say about their own and others’ experience. Rather, my main purpose has been to propose a technique that will help analysts—who might or might not be up-front negotiators or mediators—to probe changing contexts and assess the way practitioners manage them. The technique applies to past and current negotiations, and may be used to make flexible plans for future transactions, keeping in mind the pitfalls of forecasting and predicting.

'Tug of War' is available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Tug-War-Tension-International-Negotiation/dp/1863356738, or from the publisher at http://theSocialSciences.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.189/prod.11. It is also available from many other internet sources.

Best regards,

Tony English

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Dr Tony English
Flinders Business School
Flinders University
Adelaide SA 5052
Australia
http://www.flinders.edu.au/people/tony.english(On leave of absence until May 2011)