PON Live! Fisher Speaker Series: Rethinking the Negotiation Paradigm: Introducing “Fast-Track” Negotiation

About the talk:

Negotiation is among the best-known and most-used tools for advancing peace and political transition. Yet, the dominant model of the last few decades is built on methodological premises that produce prolonged negotiation. A “fast track” model is needed to match the urgent local change required in most conflict situations. Fast-track negotiation focuses more on outcomes over process, and pragmatism over perfectionism. It expands the existing toolbox of conflict resolution, thus overcoming the risky reliance on a single, slow model.

About the speakers:

Mark Freeman is the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), a non-governmental organization that recently celebrated its tenth anniversary as a global peacebuilding innovator.

A leading expert in political transitions and high-level peace negotiations with more than 30 years of experience, Freeman is regularly consulted for crisis management and conflict resolution advice. He has worked in countries including Ukraine, Venezuela, Colombia, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bosnia, Burundi, DRC, The Gambia, El Salvador, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Nepal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.

Freeman is the author of Necessary Evils: Amnesties and the Search for Justice (Cambridge, 2010) and Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness (Cambridge, 2006) and is the co-author of Negotiating Transitional Justice (Cambridge, 2020), which draws on his years as an adviser inside the Colombian peace talks in Havana. A Canadian and Belgian citizen, Freeman is a 2024 Paris Institute for Advanced Study Fellow.

Lisa Dicker, moderator, is a Clinical Instructor in the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP). Prior to joining HNMCP, Dicker was Counsel at a global pro bono law firm where she advised on peace negotiations, conflict prevention, transitional justice, and post-conflict democratic transitions. Her portfolio included advising delegations to the Sudanese Peace Talks, the Sudanese Constitutional Declaration negotiations, the UN-led Intra-Syrian Peace Process, and the Astana Ceasefire Talks for Syria. She counseled practitioners across the Middle East & North Africa on community-led transitional justice efforts; advised the Tanzanian government and civil society actors on efforts to counter violent extremism; and supported localized peacebuilding efforts in Yemen.

Dicker has also been an Adjunct Professor in Bay Path University’s M.S. Leadership & Negotiation program and has served on teaching teams for Harvard Law School’s Negotiation Workshop, Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation’s executive education courses, and independent programs. She also volunteers as a crisis counselor for Crisis Text Line.

Dicker holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review and a B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies, from the University of Tennessee.

Accommodation Statement:

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (PON) is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation(s) for persons with disabilities in connection with its programs and activities. Accommodations must not fundamentally alter applicable PON programming and are not retroactive.

Event participants should request accommodations at least two weeks prior to the start date of a program or event, as accommodations may take time to implement. Please note that PON will make every effort to secure services, but these are subject to availability.