PON Live! Negotiation Lessons from Machiavelli the Diplomat
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present:
PON Live!
Negotiation Lessons from Machiavelli the Diplomat
Alain Lempereur
Professorial Chair in Leadership and Negotiation,
European University Institute
Affiliate Faculty and Executive Committee Member,
The Program on Negotiation
Monday, July 27, 2026
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (US and Canada)
About the Talk:
Machiavelli, before becoming the renowned writer of The Prince, was a young diplomat for his beloved, although unarmed, Republic of Florence. For 15 years, he negotiated with the bullies of his time: the king of France, the German emperor, and the son of the Borgia pope, to name a few. In a dispatch, he once described himself as “Mr. Nothing,” without any cards to play. He learned the hard way how bullies tend to negotiate, how they can be intimidating, charming, positional, and transactional. As a “dwarf attacking giants,” he also learned how to negotiate with bullies: he prepared himself, structured timely mandates, evaluated and faced his counterparts with shrewdness and courage.
This webinar will combine the negotiation lessons of Machiavelli the diplomat and Machiavelli the writer, demonstrating how negotiation theory and practice can support each other as powerful tools for turbulent times. Despite the bad hand given to him by fortune, we will discover how a young, talented Florentine excelled at unbalanced negotiation games and cleverly played his weak cards. Machiavelli is an inexhaustible source of insight on how agents can lead negotiations across the table with powerful counterparts, and engage principals at their back table.
About the Speakers:
Alain Lempereur is Professorial Chair in Leadership and Negotiation at the European University Institute, and an affiliate Faculty and Executive Committee Member of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. He has facilitated many peacebuilding processes and trained thousands of mediators and diplomats.
Resources mentioned during the PON Live:
Machiavelli’s letter – Machiavelli’s Instructions to R Girolami
If you would like to read more, check out the referenced book, Negotiators who Changed the World by Remigiusz Smolinski. You purchase the book here: https://www.pon.harvard.edu/shop/negotiators-who-changed-the-world/
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.
To request accommodations please e-mail ponevents@law.harvard.edu.
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