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

    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Christiana Figueres and the Collaborative Approach to Negotiating Climate Action

    By: James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Lara SanPietro and Mina Subramanian
    • March 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Aleksander Ceferin and the European Super League

    By: Thomas Graeber, Nour Kteily, James K. Sebenius and Matthew (Matt) Higgins
    • January 11, 2023
    • ForeignAffairs.com

    Russia and Ukraine Are Not Ready for Talks: But They Might Get There If Ukraine Keeps Winning

    By: James K. Sebenius and Michael Singh
More from the Author
  • Christiana Figueres and the Collaborative Approach to Negotiating Climate Action By: James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Lara SanPietro and Mina Subramanian
  • Aleksander Ceferin and the European Super League By: Thomas Graeber, Nour Kteily, James K. Sebenius and Matthew (Matt) Higgins
  • Russia and Ukraine Are Not Ready for Talks: But They Might Get There If Ukraine Keeps Winning By: James K. Sebenius and Michael Singh
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
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College