1100 words.

Negotiation Situation in the Global context

The current paper discusses and evaluated the UN Climate Talks as an example of a global

negotiation situation. The impact of globalization and technology on negotiation is evaluated.

The paper shows globalization and technology as the two forces that can potentially facilitate

the process of achieving a common agreement. These two forces also create a serious

challenge to every party that is not prepared to deal with them.

  Negotiation is a process, in which two or more parties, by means of discussion, seek to

reach a consensus (or come to an agreement) with respect to the most problematic issues. In

the majority of negotiation situations, such agreement is expected to satisfy all negotiation

parties. Unfortunately, the real order of things is quite different. In reality, not all parties have

an opportunity to use the results and the benefits of negotiation agreements. More often than

not, because of legal, cultural, economic, and political disparities, international negotiation

parties fail to understand and recognize the value of such agreements and to use them for

their benefit. In the context of international negotiation realities, technology and globalization

are fairly regarded as the two major forces the drive the direction and the development of

negotiation strategies.

Impact on Technology

Under the impact of globalization and technology, negotiation becomes culturally and

politically diverse and technologically more effective. Simultaneously, whether international

negotiation parties are able to reach a consensus largely depends on how well they are able to

assess the impact of globalization trends on the negotiation process and whether they are

prepared to use the latest technology achievements for the purpose of stability and agreement
in the process of negotiating the results.

Negotiation Situation in the Global Context Climate and Global Warming

    The year 2009 witnessed the growing attention toward global climate issues. Dozens of

international organizations and countries became active participants of various negotiations

and meetings, which had to improve international awareness of the climate issues and

develop a single universal and effective climate strategy. The United Nations Climate Talks

in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 covered a broad range of issues and involved hundreds of

political leaders they also sought to promote the culture of inclusiveness and openness in

international negotiations. However, the UN Climate Talks also became a good test to how

well negotiation parties could accept, assess, and use the impact of globalization trends on the

process of negotiating results, and how well they were prepared to use technology as an

instrument of achieving mutual agreement.

    One of the major negotiation problems during the UN Climate Talks was caused by delays

and diversions created by a group of poor and emerging nations intent on making their

dissatisfaction clear (Broder, 2009). The poor and emerging nations became the stumbling

block on the worlds way to discussing the most serious climate problems. On the one hand,

the so-called Group of 77 sought to strengthen its political position at the summit and to

establish a vision of being a powerful decision-making force. On the other hand, many poor

and emerging countries were willing to use the new negotiation situation for the sake of

achieving their narrow political goals for example, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez made the

rich guilty of destroying the planet, while China continued to raise technical and mostly

irrelevant objections to the basic text of the final agreement (Broder, 2009). It should be

noted, that the Group of 77 is virtually a team of 130 different countries, including such small

and poor states like Vanuatu, and due to the number and diversity of its members, the group

is likely to gain and use far greater negotiation power compared to that of, for example,
Brazil (Broder, 2009). Generally, the UN Climate Talks signified the international

community failure to lead effective international negotiations. By involving so many

countries and parties in the negotiation process, the UN created a challenge, which it could

not meet. The organization could not predict and assess the impacts, which globalization and

technology produce on negotiation in global contexts. For this reason, multiple negotiation

parties were virtually unable to reconcile their political interests with those of other

negotiators, as well as with the broader objectives of the multidimensional climate talks.

Globalization and Negotiation Assessing the Emerging Disparities

    Obviously, the impact of globalization on global negotiations is two-fold. On the one hand,

globalization opens geographical frontiers and brings the parties of international negotiations

closer. On the other hand, globalization creates political, cultural, and legal challenges and

requires that international negotiation parties take into account the existing disparities

between them. To begin with, globalization does not minimize the legal pluralism, which

currently exists in the global negotiation contexts. Very often, due to the legal barriers and

the complexity of legal implications, even the best international agreement may turn into a

legal nightmare, simply because not all countries will be able to adopt it and use its benefits

(Phatak  Habib, 1996). Although globalization makes it easier to bring negotiation parties

together, it cannot minimize the legal controversies between different countries, and the

situation during the UN Climate Talks exemplifies the diversity of legal and political views

on the problems of climate change and global warming. In the same way, globalization does

not minimize the disparities between national political and economic systems but, on the

contrary, makes them more obvious. The openness, which is the direct product of

globalization, reveals the hidden facets of political and economic environments, which
negotiation parties should take into account in the process of reaching an agreement.

Regardless of whether one talks about political or business negotiations, parties involved

should thoroughly study the potential political fallout of an international business deal before

it is negotiated and the agreement is signed (Phatak  Habib, 1996). However, even legal and

political implications in the context of global negotiations are not as serious as those of

cultural and ideological character.

Globalization and diversity go hand in hand one the one hand, countries and international

negotiation participants strive to form multiple unions and political mergers to pursue their

interests on the other hand, the search for mergers and unity is also accompanied by the

negotiation parties desire to preserve their cultural and ideological uniqueness. Globalization

opens the gateway to inclusiveness, and more and more countries are invited to participate in

multilateral discussions similar to the UN Climate Talks, but cultural differences and norms

between the negotiators have a significant influence on how they behave throughout the

process (Phatak  Habib, 1996). For example, where the American party will be likely to make

numerous small concessions and share significant amount of information about their interests

and potential limitations, Japanese negotiators will tend to keep away from active information

exchange and will leave possible concessions until the very late in the negotiation process

(Phatak  Habib, 1996). As a result, the lack of cultural and legal awareness creates a situation,

when none of the parties has a chance to achieve the anticipated negotiation outcomes.

However, technology could potentially become a successful mediating element in the process

of negotiating international business and political outcomes.

Technology and Negotiation The Effects

It would be fair to say that technology does not simply change how we hold international

negotiations, but it also changes the ways in which we think about these negotiations.

Technology in the context of negotiations produces a whole multitude of impacts, from

improving the quality of interpersonal communication up to changing the dynamics and

organization of different social and political systems (Purdy, Nye  Balakrishnan, 2000). The

impact of communication media on negotiations is probably the most significant and the most

positive, for these are communication media (including videoconferencing and computer

chats) that bring negotiation parties together and let them discuss even the most problematic

issues without the need to travel. The UN Climate Talks and similar global negotiations

although require physical presence of negotiation parties but are both technologically

sophisticated and advanced that political leaders are given an opportunity to understand each

other by using professional interpreting programs makes technology the essential component

of any international negotiation success.

Unfortunately, technology does not eliminate the existing cultural and legal disparities

between countries nor does it change individual and political perceptions about them. Rather,

the success of global negotiations depends on how well the parties are prepared to use these

technologies in the process of negotiating results. In its current state, technology often goes

far beyond our expectations, making us unprepared to deal with it (Purdy, Nye  Balakrishnan,

2000). For example, the participants of the UN Climate Talks in December could be given

access to the basic information about other parties, and technology and the Internet could

help them deal with unexpected cultural and legal challenges. Simultaneously, the parties

that, for some reason or other, were not able to personally attend the meeting could

participate in the discussion by using media technologies, including teleconferences. In this

context, where technology may potentially facilitate the process of achieving the general

agreement, it also creates a serious technological challenge, which all negotiation parties are

bound to meet if they want to protect and pursue their political and business interests. Both

globalization and technology have a potential to become the two driving forces in the

effectiveness and efficiency of the multilateral negotiation processes, but fulfilling this task
will be impossible without training negotiation parties to use the benefits of technology and

globalization in the process of achieving mutual agreement.

References

Negotiation Situation That Has Occurred in the Global Context. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28,

2021, from https://professional-ethics-articles.blogspot.com/2013/05/negotiation-

situation-that-has-occurred.html