PIN-Negotiation

The Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program is a not-for-profit group of scholars and practitioners that encourages and organizes research on a broad spectrum of topics related to international negotiation seen as a process. Its objectives include the dissemination of new knowledge about negotiation as widely as possible and developing networks of scholars and practitioners interested in the subject, for the purpose of improving the analysis and practice of negotiation worldwide.

The PIN network includes scholars, students and practioners of international negotiation. The organization is presided over by a Steering Committee, which organizes the many activities and publishes the PIN review PINpoints. PIN has a training wing named POINT (Program on International Negotiation Training), with 35 well-established experienced trainers in international negotiation and mediation processes.

The PIN secretariat is based at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) in Abu Dhabi. There are currently 12 PIN Steering Committee members: Dr Karin Aggestam of Lund University; Dr Khalifa al-Suwaidi of the AGDA; Dr Mark Anstey of Nelson Mandela University; Dr Guy Olivier Faure of the Sorbonne; Dr Fen Osler Hampson of Carleton University; Dr Paul Meerts of Leiden University; Dr Valerie Rosoux of the Catholic University of Louvain; Dr Rudolf Schüssler of Bayreuth University; Dr Mikhail Troitskiy of Wisconsin University; Mr Tobias Vestner of the GCSP; and Dr Sinisa Vukovic and Dr I. William Zartman of the Johns Hopkins University SAIS.

Every year the Steering Committee conducts a workshop devoted to the analysis and improvement of the practice of an aspect of negotiation, involving scholars from numerous countries. After the workshop these papers are revised for publication. PIN has published a book per year out of these workshops. Topics generally fall into one or both of two categories: conceptual issues, often bringing together another conceptual area that has hitherto not been combined with negotiation, and current issues. Power and Negotiation (2000), Escalation and International Negotiation (2005), Negotiated Risks (2009), Diplomacy Games (2009) (on formal modelling), and Endgame (2019) are examples of the first; Negotiating the Comprehensive Test Ban (2010), Negotiating European Union (2003), Climate Change Negotiations (2010), Negotiating the Intifadat (Arab Spring) (2015), and the upcoming Negotiating Identity Complexities in a Fragmenting World Order in 2024 are examples of the second.

The Steering Committee also offers mini-conferences on international negotiations in order to disseminate and encourage research on the subject, where the inviting host pays for room and board and PIN pays for transportation. Such road shows have been held at the Argentine Council for International Relations, Buenos Aires; Beida University, Beijing; the Center for Conflict Resolution, Haifa; the Center for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Culture, Kyoto; the School of International Relations, Tehran; the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm; the University of Cairo; University Hassan II, Casablanca; the University of Helsinki; the UN University for Peace, San José, Costa Rica; the University of Economics, Prague; and the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (MEDAC), Valletta.

PIN has been hosted by the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA, 1986–2010), the Clingendael Institute (NIIB, 2011–2017) and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA, 2018–2022).