Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2012
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Level II Negotiations: Helping the Other Side Meet Its 'Behind the Table' Challenges

By: James K. Sebenius
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:13
ShareBar

Abstract

A long analytic tradition explores the challenge of productively synchronizing "internal" with "external" negotiations, especially focusing on how each side can best manage internal opposition to agreements negotiated "at the table." Implicit in much of this work is the view that each side's leadership is best positioned to manage its own internal conflicts, often 1) by pressing for deal terms that will meet internal objections and 2) by effectively "selling" the agreement to key constituencies. Far less familiar territory involves how each side can help the other side with the other's "behind-the-table" barriers to successful agreement. Following Robert Putnam's (1988) two-level games schema, I characterize such "behind the table," or "Level II," barriers more broadly, offer several innovative examples of how each side can help the other overcome them, and develop more general advice on doing so most effectively. As a fuller illustration of a Level II negotiator helping the other side with its formidable behind-the-table challenges, I pay special attention to the end-of-Cold-War negotiations over German reunification in which former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker played a key role.

Keywords

Negotiation; Conflict Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Government and Politics; Mathematical Methods; United States; Germany

Citation

Sebenius, James K. "Level II Negotiations: Helping the Other Side Meet Its 'Behind the Table' Challenges." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-004, July 2012.
  • Read Now

About The Author

James K. Sebenius

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • November 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking II: When They Hold All the Cards (B)

    By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
    • November 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking II: When They Hold All the Cards (A)

    By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
    • November 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking I: “Becoming a ‘Friend of the Situation’” (B)

    By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
More from the Author
  • Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking II: When They Hold All the Cards (B) By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
  • Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking II: When They Hold All the Cards (A) By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
  • Steve Schwarzman on Dealmaking I: “Becoming a ‘Friend of the Situation’” (B) By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College