57721. Prenegotiations: The Theory and How to Apply It to Balkan Issues
- Author:
- Plamen Pantev
- Publication Date:
- 07-1998
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
- Abstract:
- The issues, the activities and the relations preceding the formal international negotiations have increasingly become an area of a special theoretic interest. The prenegotiation or the prenegotiation phase is part of the broader issue of the dynamic interactive process of international negotiations. The pace, the contents and the direction of the negotiation process is influenced by various factors: foreign-policy bureaucracy in the individual negotiating countries, the personal peculiarities of the very negotiators, the international-political environment of the on-going negotiations, etc. The system constituted by the interactive relationship of the negotiating parties is certainly one of these factors and all the prenegotiating activity before formal negotiations have begun does matter in shaping and understanding the actual negotiation process. Both the cooperative and the conflicting relations in Southeastern Europe have run into regulative problems part of which are caused by inadequate preparatory prenegotiation work. Examples of that are the deadlocked bilateral relations between Bulgaria and FYROM - The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; the incapacity to duplicate right away the successful agreement for the creation of the Multinational Peace-keeping Force of Southeastern Europe (MPFSEE) with an agreement of the place for the headquarters of this rapid-reaction force and an important confidence and security building measure in the worried Balkan region; the inadequate involvement in an informal way of counterparts from the FRY by broader multilateral Balkan fora to show how the developments in Kosovo are perceived by experts, the broader public and politicians in the neighbouring Southeast European countries; the slow process of historical rapprochements in the Balkan peninsula; the deadlocked Bulgarian-Romanian case of the construction of the second bridge over the Danube and many others. The Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS) continues its three-dimensional work of conceptualizing the post-Cold War political, social, economic and security situation in Southeastern Europe, of finding the adequate tools to cope with the existing issues and of moving more effectively to becoming a part of the Euroatlantic security community. An improved negotiation culture and capacity of all the players in the Southeast European region, including at the prenegotiation stage is a fundamental reason and motive of carrying out this study. It is hoped to be just a part of a broader research and educational activity in the field of international negotiations ISIS intends to carry out individually and in cooperation with other national and foreign partners - by traditional means and through the potential opportunities Internet presents for bringing closer more people together. Negotiating to prevent and manage conflicts in the Balkans, to cope with a vast array of post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation issues as well as to channel the region-building activity in Southeastern Europe - all they necessitate an enhanced international negotiation potential for all actors in the area that ISIS is ready to stimulate, educate and catalyse. There is no doubt for the author of this study these three different kinds of negotiating activity in the Balkans have specific reflections on the prenegotiation activity and theory and vice versa - an issue that further needs to be scrutinized and thought over.
- Topic:
- Security, Negotiation, and Reconciliation
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Balkans