BUILDING MOMENTUM IN NEGOTIATIONS - TIME-RELATED COSTS AND ACTION-FORCING EVENTS

Using the negotiations over the future of Northern Ireland and other c ase examples, the author develops a conceptual framework for analyzing how negotiators seek to build momentum and overcome stalemate. The fr amework: focuses on the choices negotiators face between taking action and waiting in the hope that counterparts will make concessions, expl oring the importance of perceptions of time-related costs and action-f orcing events in shaping decision making. The framework highlights the uneven, nonlinear nature of the flow of negotiation processes from in itiation to agreement or breakdown and focuses on the ways negotiators seek to influence the flow by shaping perceptions of time-related cos ts, structuring action-forcing events, and creating linkages among set s of negotiations.