Overcoming Negotiation Deadlocks - 2025 Edition
In the context of developing bilateral contractual relations, negotiation has taken a prominent place as a decision-making and regulation process. Also, the challenge of renewed multilateralism is closely linked to the ability of the international community to foster truly productive negotiation processes in a rapidly evolving global context. As the main training arm of the UN, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is responding to this eminent challenge with its ground-breaking training initiative “Overcoming Negotiation Deadlocks” intended to serve the entire community of negotiators worldwide.
This course aims to equip participants with practical skills to enhance individual negotiation capacity and lead through situations of deadlock. It will help learners to improve their negotiation performance in order to obtain better outcomes in bilateral and multilateral negotiations, but also to become brokers of agreements when solutions look impossible.
A number of leading academics (Prof. William Zartman, Prof. Minh A. Luong, David Koschel) and senior practitioners in the field of international negotiations (President Martti Ahtisaari, numerous senior diplomats) contributed to the development and delivery of this course.
Overall, the course aims to equip participants with the conceptual knowledge and practical tools to efficiently overcome deadlocks in negotiations and successfully negotiate towards beneficial outcomes.
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Distinguish between different approaches to negotiations, incl. distributive and integrative negotiations;
- Detect ‘psychological traps’ in complex situations and how to avoid them;
- Employ a comprehensive tool box for various negotiation situations and stages, incl. preparation, conduct and closure of negotiation;
- Identify the most effective strategies in specific situations, based on learning experience, case analysis and practitioners’ feedback and advice.
This e-Learning course aims to equip participants with practical skills to enhance individual negotiation capacity and lead through situations of deadlock, relevant for various professional and personal contexts.
It will help learners to improve their performance as negotiators in order to obtain better outcomes in intergovernmental, intra-organizational, business, or private negotiations, but also to become brokers of agreements when solutions look impossible. As such, course modules will look at key components of effective negotiations, psychological factors that influence our negotiation behavior, and how to negotiate your way through difficult negotiations (incl. preparing for negotiations, “off-the-table” work, and “at-the-table” moves).
The course will be conducted in English over a period of four weeks, organized in modules on different topics. The course will be delivered via UNITAR’s e-Learning platform. This pedagogical tool will help participants meet the course’s learning objectives through a self-paced study routine supported by multimedia, optional and required readings, discussion forums, assessment quizzes, and a wealth of other information.
Beyond diplomats, government officials and representatives of international organizations, the course will also benefit professionals from the private sector, students, and other interested individuals.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
We highly recommend credit card payments
The course participation fee is 600 USD. You will receive an invoice by email after registration.
General Requirements
- Have a good command of the English language
- Be computer literate
Technical Requirements
UNITAR recommends the following as a minimum in hardware and software to take our e-Learning courses. Please consult your Network Administrator or Systems person to ensure that you have the following:
- Platform: Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP or superior; MacOS 9 or MacOS X; Linux
- Hardware: 64 MB of RAM, 1 GB of free disk space
- Software:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (click here to download for free)
- Adobe Flash Player (click here to download for free)
- Microsoft Office (Windows or Mac) or Open Office (click here to download for free)
- Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or higher (click here to download for free); it works better with Firefox 3.6 or higher (click here to download for free)
- Note that JavaScript, Cookies and Pop-ups must be enabled