Introduction to Negotiations and Advocacy 

Course Description

The module is designed to be an intensive practical workshop to assist students to develop negotiating skills in the international trading arena.  The goal of this course is to provide students with grounding in the fundamentals of interest-based negotiation principles and techniques. A collateral goal is to provide students with exposure to negotiation, mediation, and WTO dispute resolution scenarios that will provide a basis of understanding of government and private sector interests, roles, and practical techniques in trade negotiations.  

At the completion of this course students should have learned: 

• What are the elements that constitute a successful negotiating strategy?  
• What factors have to be considered in designing a strategy?  
• The differences between a zero-sum type of negotiation as opposed to an interest-based or mutual-gains negotiation?  
• What is different about rule-making negotiations?  

Learning exercises will include simulations of bilateral and multilateral negotiations.  

Assessment will be based on performance in the simulations and on an evaluation of their course journal recording the analysis of negotiating issues assigned in class and the preparation of class simulations of negotiations, dispute settlement and press conferences.