What's Happening in Conflict Resolution is a roundup of the all the ADR news, research, jobs, events and more. Check it out, and view past versions [HERE].

Negotiation and Conflict in the News

 Brexit negotiations are right around the corner.

This BBC article touches on two important negotiation issues: The first is coordination within your coalition – not an easy task, with 27 states on one side of the table! The second is ‘linkage;’ Britain wishes to hold a multi-issue negotiation linking Brexit and future UK-EU relations; the EU want to deal with the former issue first, before negotiating the latter, as two separate deals. See the full story here.

‘Excuse me, what does ‘excuse moi’ mean?

This might seem like a lighter issue, but really is not. Behind the scenes, a negotiation is unfolding over the language in which the Brexit negotiations will be held. Read the story in Francesco Garasico’s article in The Independent here. 

In the Spotlight: Technology in Conflict and Conflict Resolution

In this piece, Graham Ross of odrtraining.com provides an update on recent developments in Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and points out ways that it can be incorporated in tradition, face-to-face processes.

Arik Segal of conflictech.com takes a big-picture view in discussing how technological developments are changing conflict and conflict resolution. Read Conflict Resolution in the Fourth Industrial Revolution here.

Negotiation Research

A ‘Grand’ Unified Negotiation Theory… in Context

By now, the negotiation field has accumulated a considerable volume of wisdom regarding what drives people and entities to negotiate, how they behave when doing so, how they should handle negotiations in order to obtain specific results, and how to help disputants resolve to come to joint, mutually satisfactory decisions. However, negotiation wisdom remains rather distributed in its disciplines and practices of origin. In this paper, a team of negotiation teachers and professionals suggest how a unified “grand” theory of negotiation might be constructed, and discuss how it would interface with practice across the wide variety of contexts in which it applies.
A comment on this paper, contrasting and comparing the search for unified theory in the field of negotiation with a similar search for a theory unifying the natural forces in the world of nature, can be found here.

 Sad News

Morton Deutsch, social psychologist and one of the fathers of the field of conflict, negotiation, and cooperation, has passed away. Read about his life and his work in this NYT piece by Sam Roberts.

Job Opportunity

State of New York: Coordinator of Dispute Resolution Programs

Podcast

Listen to the Texas Conflict Coach podcast on Conflict Management Tools for Work.