Crisis Negotiations Between Unequal Summary

Crisis Negotiations Between Unequals by Heinz Waelchli and Dhavan Shah

Case Illustration:

Impractical power negotiation the Melian Dialogue between Athenian Empire and ppl from isle of Melos

Both Athenian and Empire engaged in hard positional bargaining – no tradeoff and mutual interest/agreement

Effect: DISASTER the destruction of Melos

Analysis:

Who are they?

Athenian Empire | Isle of Melos | Involved in Peloponnesian War (Athenian vs. Spartans) | Independent, neutral island | Interest: expanding empire, conquer Melos due to economic and strategic location (had to get Melos no matter what cost) | Interest: remain independent |

Athenians sent representatives to negotiate to Melos (last chance to succumb)
Athenian | Melians | Using coercion to negotiate – create bitter climate | Threats from Athenians lead to suspicion and dislike to Melos | Has military presence, which create bad atmosphere to the negotiation | Melians viewed either war or slavery | Regarded power and strength as virtues – had a right to get what they could | Argued that they are neutral not enemy | Forcefully took control of the meeting by establishing ground rules | Restriction had blocked Melian’s ability to form a strategy.Melian commissioners were forced to be defensive | Threaten: if Melians do not comply with the demands, they would be destroyed | Melians refused to give in because they believe they had nothing to gain and everything to lose |

Athenians had the negotiating power but did not exercise economic and military power wisely

Two elements created power imbalance: * alternatives to a negotiated agreement * negative commitments

Both use contending strategies to satisfy its positional concerns * instead of creating value, they used claim value * instead of being cooperative and inventive, they chose to view negotiations as hard, tough