How Germans Negotiate: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict

Germany has a distinctive culture and a formidable negotiating style based on logic, rigour and tenacity, qualities that make negotiations challenging but potentially rewarding encounters. Drawing on interviews with dozens of European and American negotiators, Smyser offers diplomats and business people an incisive portrait of their German counterparts. He begins by exploring the roots of contemporary German negotiating behaviour and then identifies the stages through which negotiations typically pass. Using examples drawn form the past 50 years, he illustrates Germany's abiding search for security, stability and community. Germans are usually willing to make a mutally beneficial deal, but not before they've undertaken exhaustive research, presented a meticulous case and satisfied their own demands for conceptual consistency. A separate chapter focuses on business and economic negotiations, which can be very different from diplomatic encounters. Smyser investigates a variety of recent cases. The conclusion lays out basic strategies and tactical pointers and explains how to avoid mistakes.