International Negotiation and Political Narratives: A Comparative Study

This book shows that political narratives can promote or thwart the prospects for international cooperation and are major factors in international negotiation processes in the 21st century.

In a world that is experiencing waves of right-wing and left-wing populism, international cooperation has become increasingly difficult. This volume focuses on how the intersubjective identities of political parties and narratives shape their respective values, interests and negotiating behaviors and strategies. Through a series of comparative case studies, the book explains how and why narratives contribute to negotiation failure or deadlock in some circumstances and why, in others, they do not because a new narrative that garners public and political support has emerged through the process of negotiation. The book also examines how narratives interact with negotiation principles, and alter the bargaining range of a negotiation, including the ability to make concessions.

This book will be of much interest to students of international negotiation, economics, security studies and international relations.

Fen Osler Hampson is Chancellor’s Professor at Carleton University, Canada, and President of the World Refugee and Migration Council. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Amrita Narlikar is President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and Professor at Hamburg University, Germany. She is also an Honorary Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge, UK.