No one can provide perspective on conflict resolution like experts who have been involved in some of the world’s most complex negotiations. Since 2001, the Program on Negotiation (PON) has bestowed the Great Negotiator Award upon distinguished leaders whose lifelong accomplishments in the fields of negotiation and dispute resolution have had compelling and lasting results.
The Great … Read More 
Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
the great negotiator
What is The Great Negotiator Award?
The Great Negotiator Award was established in 2000 by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School to recognize individuals whose lifetime achievements in negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant impact on society.
To earn the Great Negotiator Award, a person must be a distinguished leader whose lifelong accomplishments in the field of dispute resolution and negotiation have had compelling and lasting results.
Over the years, the Great Negotiator Award has recognized a diverse array of distinguished negotiators from around the world. Tommy Koh, Singapore’s former ambassador to the United States and United Nations, led one of the most contentious global environmental negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Artists Christo and Jean-Claude overcame the objections of four mayors, as well as numerous boards and New York City residents, to pull off one of the greatest, most controversial public art installations of all time throughout Central Park.
To help students and professionals learn valuable lessons from these highly skilled negotiators, our Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) offers the Great Negotiator Series, featuring in-depth negotiation case studies such as Stuart Eizenstat: Negotiating the Final Accounts of World War II and Lakhdar Brahimi: Negotiating a New Government for Afghanistan.
Most students of negotiation will never find themselves in the same situations as the notables they study. However, a focus on the Great Negotiator stories reveals the constant oscillation of varying negotiation dynamics and the way they require enormous creativity on the part of the negotiators. There is technique and there is art.
We don’t want students to get trapped in an unrealistic expectation that the same approach will see them through each time. The stories of the great negotiators make this point quite clearly.
To learn more about negotiation and improve your skills, you can download a complimentary copy of our special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, right now!
The following items are tagged the great negotiator:
New Great Negotiator Case and Video: Christiana Figueres, former UNFCCC Executive Secretary
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School periodically presents the Great Negotiator Award to an individual whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant and lasting impact. In 2022, PON selected Christiana Figueres as the recipient of its Great Negotiator Award for her efforts to build … Read More
Team Building Using Negotiation Skills
To avoid conveying weakness to the other side, rather than calling for a break at the first sign of trouble, some negotiation teams devise secret signals they can use to bring wayward members in line—for instance, someone might stretch out her arms to communicate to another member that he’s getting off track.
… Read Team Building Using Negotiation Skills
Techniques for Leading Multiparty Negotiations: Structuring the Bargaining Process
Imagine leading negotiations involving representatives from most of the world’s nations on a contentious topic such as sustainable development. Where would you start? How would you proceed when conflict emerged? How would you know when it was time to wrap things up?
… Read More
Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example
There are good negotiators and there are great ones.
Once a year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School selects an outstanding individual who embodies what it means to be a truly great negotiator. To earn the Great Negotiator Award, the honoree must be a distinguished leader whose lifelong accomplishments in the field of dispute … Read Negotiation Case Studies: Teach By Example
Learn from the Best with the Great Negotiator
No one can provide perspective on conflict resolution like experts who have been involved in some of the world’s most complex negotiations. Since 2001, the Program on Negotiation (PON) has bestowed the Great Negotiator Award upon distinguished leaders whose lifelong accomplishments in the fields of negotiation and dispute resolution have had compelling and lasting results.
The Great … Read Learn from the Best with the Great Negotiator
2017 Great Negotiator Award Goes to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos
On September 20th, Harvard Law School awarded the prestigious annual Great Negotiator award to Nobel Prize Winner, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, on behalf of the Program on Negotiation. This award recognizes those whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant and lasting impact. Santos is also a … Read More
Arbitration vs Mediation: Using Teambuilding and ADR in Negotiation
During his years as George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State, one of James A. Baker, III’s, goals was to encourage the free-market reforms that Communist Party of the Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had launched in the late 1980s. One day during his tenure, a high-level Bush administration official commented in the press that … Read More
Great Negotiators vs. Great Negotiations: The Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator Teaching Series
Teaching negotiation using case studies focused on the efforts of great negotiators can help achieve several pedagogical goals at the same time. Developed by Professor James Sebenius of Harvard Business School, the Program on Negotiation’s Great Negotiator case study series, available from the PON Clearinghouse, highlights the lessons learned by each recipient of PON’s Great … Read More
Case Study: Teaching with a Powerful Negotiated Agreement
What do a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the CEO of an international financial advisory firm, and the former United States ambassador to the United Nations have in common? They’ve all received the Great Negotiator Award.
Every year, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School bestows this prestigious honor on distinguished leaders whose lifelong accomplishments in … Read More
James Baker: The Man Who Made Washington Work
The PON Film Series is pleased to present: James Baker: The Man Who Made Washington Work
Join us for a screening and discussion with
writer and director Eric Stange,
moderated by Professor James Sebenius, Harvard Business School
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
7:00 PM
Langdell Hall South, Harvard Law School
Free admission; public welcome. Refreshments will be served.
About the film:
Narrated by Tom Brokaw, James … Read James Baker: The Man Who Made Washington Work
Great Negotiator 2014 Tommy Koh Describes Negotiation as an Art and Science
Program on Negotiation and Harvard Kennedy School’s Future of Diplomacy Project Great Negotiator award winner for 2014, Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh, wrote an article about his experience winning the Great Negotiator award from Harvard University and the insights into negotiation he offered while honored here in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
… Read More
Program on Negotiation to honor Ambassador Tommy Koh as 2014 Great Negotiator
Join us for a conversation with Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore, the recipient of the 2014 Great Negotiator Award. This public program will feature panel discussions with Ambassador Koh and faculty from the Program on Negotiation and the Future of Diplomacy Project. The award recognizes Ambassador Koh for his work as chief negotiator for the … Read More
Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore Named the Great Negotiator by the Program on Negotiation and the Future of Diplomacy Project
The Program on Negotiation, an inter-university consortium of Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, and Harvard’s Future of Diplomacy Project have named Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore the recipient of the 2014 Great Negotiator Award. In public events at Harvard planned for the afternoon of Thursday, April 10, 2014 (details to be announced), participants will honor Koh’s … Read More
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School: Three Decades of Scholarship and Practice
Founded in 1983, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is a pioneer in the fields of negotiation, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution.
In commemoration of the program’s 30th anniversary this year, the Program on Negotiation is proud to present a video describing many of PON’s various educational and research activities.
According to Chair Robert Mnookin, … Read More
Great Negotiator Award 2012
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, in conjunction with the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School, honored distinguished statesman and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III as the recipient of their Great Negotiator Award for 2012. Secretary Baker served under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992.
A … Read Great Negotiator Award 2012
2012 Great Negotiator Award event will honor former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III on March 29th
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School and the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) will jointly honor former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III with the 2012 Great Negotiator Award on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at the Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.
The Great Negotiator Award … Read More
2012 Great Negotiator event will honor James A. Baker, III
2012 Great Negotiator Event honoring
James A. Baker, III
Thursday, March 29, 2012, 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School
This event is free and open to the public.
Join former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III as he discusses with faculty his most challenging negotiations, including the efforts that resulted in the Madrid Conference, the … Read More
The Gilad Shalit-Palestinian prisoners exchange: the process, deal and implications
The Middle East Negotiation Initiative at PON invites you to a panel discussion on
The Gilad Shalit-Palestinian prisoners exchange: the process, deal and implications
November 7, 2011 • 12:15 – 2 p.m.
Pound 100 • Harvard Law School
Please bring your lunch. Drinks and cookies will be served.
PANELISTS
Robert H. Mnookin is the Samuel Williston Professor of Law at Harvard … Read More
Video: 2010 Great Negotiator Martti Ahtisaari
On September 27, 2010, the Program on Negotiation presented former President of Finland the Great Negotiator Award. This video shows a portion of the event, including part of a discussion with President Ahtisaari regarding the final status for Kosovo.
To learn more about the Great Negotiator Award, click here.
To see more PON negotiation videos, click here.
… Read Video: 2010 Great Negotiator Martti Ahtisaari
Remembering Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, a Great Negotiator
In 2004, the Program on Negotiation selected Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as the recipient of its Great Negotiator Award. “He was an outstanding and entrepreneurial diplomat, and we are so sorry to learn of his sudden death,” said Professor Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation. “During the day Richard Holbrooke spent with us, … Read More
New PON Teaching Materials About the Work of Martti Ahtisaari, 2010 Great Negotiator Award Recipient
The Program on Negotiation’s 2010 Great Negotiator Award was given to former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari, for his many significant achievements in the fields of negotiation and diplomacy. He was central to the Namibian independence negotiations in the late 1980s. He also served as chief United Nations negotiator to Kosovo from 2005-2006, and was instrumental … Read More
Great Negotiator Award Featured in Harvard Crimson
President Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient, was presented the Great Negotiator Award by the Program on Negotiation and the Future of Diplomacy Project yesterday. To read more about the event in the Harvard Crimson, click here.
… Read More
Former President Martti Ahtisaari honored with Great Negotiator Award!
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Will Honor Former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award
Co-sponsored with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Great Negotiator Event Offers Real-World Negotiation Discussion to All Students
For Immediate Release
CAMBRIDGE, MA (September 21, 2010) The Program on Negotiation … Read More
The 2010 Great Negotiator
On September 27, 2010, Nobel Peace Prize recipient (2008) and former President of Finland (1994-2000) Martti Ahtisaari will be honored with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Future of Diplomacy Project. Martti Ahtisaari will participate in a faculty led discussion in Spangler Auditorium at Harvard … Read The 2010 Great Negotiator
PON saddened by the death of artist and Great Negotiator, Jeanne-Claude
“The Program on Negotiation is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jeanne-Claude, half of the dynamic and brilliant artistic partnership of Christo and Jeanne-Claude,” commented Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. “In September 2008, we honored Christo and Jeanne-Claude as the Program on Negotiation’s “Great Negotiators”. … Read More
Program on Negotiation saddened by the loss of 2007 Great Negotiator, Bruce Wasserstein
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School was saddened to learn of the death of Bruce Wasserstein, PON’s 2007 Great Negotiator. The Great Negotiator Award is given to recognize an individual whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant and lasting impact. Wasserstein, Chairman and CEO of … Read More
Brahimi Receives 2002 Great Negotiator Award
Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi (middle) with James Sebenius (left) and Jeswald Salacuse at Harvard Business School on October 2, 2002
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2002 Great Negotiator Award is Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan.
Ambassador Brahimi is a … Read Brahimi Receives 2002 Great Negotiator Award
George Mitchell Recieves First Great Negotiator Award
On April 7, 2000, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School honored former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell with the first Great Negotiator Award. Mitchell was recognized for his role as a master coalition builder at home and abroad. Under his leadership the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of … Read More
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