The new PINPoints - Clingendael’s negotiation magazine: now available

Negotiation failure seems to be more common than ever. Concepts that explain causes and consequences of failure are central in the new PINPoints, published by Clingendael’s Processes of International Negotiation.

In issue #39:

• I. William Zartman discusses the upcoming Geneve peace talks and finds little reason for hope for success.


• Cecilia Albin reports that issues of procedural and distributive justice seem to be at the heart of success and failure in effective negotiations.


• Lack of progress in nuclear arms control negotiations between the US and Russia has a paralyzing effect on all other nuclear negotiations, according to Mikhail Troitskiy. Leadership is necessary to break the status quo.


• One of the regional negotiations on nuclear weapons was the Helsinki process on a regional weapons of mass destruction free zone. Mordechai Melamud describes the difficulties on the road to Helsinki and its subsequent failure.


• Social media has reopened a debate on the tension between democracy and secretive negotiations. This tension is the topic of articles written by Valérie Rosoux and Paul Meerts.

The last three articles of this issue are both conceptual, regional and deal with difficult and entrenched negotiations:

• Rudolf Schüssler comments on the debate in Germany that European leaders, including Angela Merkel, are hijacked by game theory concepts such as ‘number 2’. 


• Mark Anstey writes about labor unrest in South-Africa and the need for new social pacts.


• I. William Zartman draws some conclusions on the Arab Spring social movements and their subsequent negotiations, which led to only two - more or less - successful outcomes, Tunisia and Yemen.

Download and read the new PINPoints. Do you prefer to print your copy? Download PINPoints in high res.

PINPoints is the network magazine of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) and published bi-annually by Clingendael Research.