"The Negotiation Process and International Economic Organizations"

Odell, John S. 

odell@usc.edu

APSA Atlanta 1999

Abstract

We will understand the formation and dynamics of international
organizations better if we invest in more and better research aimed 
at generalizing about the process of negotiation in those settings. 
The study of international institutions and the empirical study of 
negotiation have often been isolated from each other.  This has been 
changing, but many promising opportunities remain unexploited. This 
paper illustrates with reference to economic organizations. Research 
opportunities lie in questions such as what strategies regime 
negotiators use, what shapes their strategy choices, what effects 
these strategies have, what coalition-building tactics they use and 
which work best under what conditions, and how the process is 
conditioned by its contexts‹domestic political institutions, 
cultures, the security environment, and the international 
organization context. One major reason for digging further into 
these possibilities is to benefit bargaining practice as well as the 
ivory towers.