Many Voices: Multilateral Negotiations in the World Arena

International negotiations increasingly involve a myriad of state and nonstate actors who approach major issues from a variety of standpoints and work to determine outcomes acceptable to all. Great powers, military allies, business and industry, LDCs, international organizations, and even domestic politics enter into negotiations on complex issues―ranging from defense and national security to environmental protection and Third World development―that now dominate the global agenda. Abiodun Williams has assembled a collection of case studies that illustrate the variety and dynamism of this complex decisionmaking process. Cases including conflict resolution in Indochina and mining in Antarctica show students the role of contending national objectives, necessary trade-offs, and efforts at coalition building, as well as the influence of personality and persuasion on the outcomes of major negotiations. A case exploring the investment activities of transnational corporations and their impact on developing countries is organized as a simulation exercise that offers students rare insight into negotiations under UN auspices and the impact of regional bloc politics on multilateral diplomacy.

Abiodun Williams was recently named president of The Hague Institute for Global Justice. Prior to this role, he was senior vice president of the Center of Conflict Management (CCM) where he led USIP's work in major conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, the Middle East, and North Africa. Previously he also served as director of strategic planning in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General during the last six months of Kofi Annan's first term and during the entire five years of his second term.