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• Article | Harvard International Review | Spring 2018

  Henry Kissinger and Robert Mugabe: The Forgotten Connection via Remarkably Creative Negotiation

  James K. Sebenius

  When Robert Mugabe was forced out of office in late 2017 after 37 years of increasingly brutal rule in Zimbabwe, he had been in the job so long that few recall how he got there. Fewer still remember that it was Henry Kissinger, whose complex, if unlikely, negotiations to achieve black majority rule in Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, helped to facilitate Mugabe's ascent. Tracing this mostly forgotten episode illustrates the potential for creative and strategic negotiation to overcome what many regard as impossibly high barriers—as well as the painful lesson that negotiating virtuosity plus the election of a charismatic leader hardly suffice for a prosperous and democratic outcome.

  Keywords: Negotiation; History; Negotiation Style; Outcome or Result; Zimbabwe;

  Citation:

  Sebenius, James K. "Henry Kissinger and Robert Mugabe: The Forgotten Connection via Remarkably Creative Negotiation." Harvard International Review 39, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 58–61.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2017 (Revised December 2017)

  Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Rhodesia (A)

  James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green

  In 1976, a growing crisis in Southern Africa drew the attention of United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. White Rhodesian leader Ian Smith's refusal to accede to black majority rule threatened to widen into a regional conflict involving apartheid South Africa and newly independent leftist African states. Kissinger and others feared that the region was on the brink of becoming a new battleground in the Cold War. In light of these developments Kissinger decided to intervene, seeking a negotiated solution that might bring about a peaceful end to minority rule. The account in this case carefully describes—but does not analyze nor draw lessons from—these challenging circumstances.

  Keywords: equality and inequality; Negotiation Process; race; Negotiation Participants; Government and Politics; Africa; United States; Equality and Inequality; Race; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Government and Politics; Africa; United States;

  Citation:

  Sebenius, James K., and Laurence A. Green. "Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Rhodesia (A)." Harvard Business School Case 918-003, September 2017. (Revised December 2017.)  View Details

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | September 2017 (Revised December 2017)

  Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Rhodesia (B)

  James K. Sebenius and Laurence A. Green

  In 1976, United States Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger conducted a series of intricate, multiparty negotiations in Southern Africa to persuade white Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to accede to black majority rule. Conducted near the end of President Gerald Ford’s term in office and against substantial U.S. domestic opposition, Kissinger’s efforts culminated in Smith’s public announcement that he would accept majority rule within two years. This set the stage for the later Lancaster House negotiations that resulted in the actual transition to black majority rule. The account in this case carefully describes—but does not analyze nor draw lessons from—these challenging negotiations.

  Keywords: equality and inequality; Negotiation Process; race; Negotiation Participants; negotiation deal; Government and Politics; Africa; United States; Equality and Inequality; Race; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Government and Politics; Africa; United States;

  Citation:

  Sebenius, James K., and Laurence A. Green. "Henry Kissinger: Negotiating Black Majority Rule in Rhodesia (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 918-004, September 2017. (Revised December 2017.)  View Details

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