Practitioners supporting the Centre for Multilateral Negotiations

UNFCCC Executive Secretary, 2006-2010
There is definitely an urgent need to learn more systematically from past negotiation processes to make them more successful in the future.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary, President COP16
This is a great initiative, which I fully support. In multilateral negotiations, the quality of the process is as important as the substance in order to reach significant agreements.

Director-General of the World Trade Organization, 2005-2013
This centre represents a great opportunity to provide negotiation chairs with facilitation best practices, and thereby accelerate the crafting of multilateral agreements on trade and other global issues.

Former UNFCCC Executive Secretary
Negotiations cannot be improvised if they are to be successful. An understanding of the rules and dynamics inherent in any multilateral negotiation are as important as knowledge of the substance. An effective negotiator does well to learn these as key tools of the trade.

Head of Environment and Climate Division, French Foreign Ministry
I and my team greatly benefited from Kai Monheim’s presentation in 2014 on the lessons learned from previous presidencies. It helped us structure our approach to prepare and later exercise the presidency of COP21. The lessons drawn by Kai resonated in the many steps we took when interacting, at different levels, with parties to the UNFCC, and, in no small ways, contributed to the success of Paris.

Former Chair of the negotiations of the Biosafety Protocol, Former Environment Minister of Colombia
Any multilateral negotiation is a highly complex process. So, best practices of negotiation management, especially of transparency, will increase the chances to reach desirable outcomes. There is no doubt a centre like this will enrich the skills of young as well as experienced facilitators.

How do we ensure we don’t start from scratch with every new presidency or President?

Head of the German delegation to the UN climate negotiations
There would clearly be a need and demand for such an institution.

Zammit Cutajar
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, 1991-2002
The knowledge management function is important.

Former Hong Kong trade negotiator and WTO Chief of Staff
Practitioners in every field of multilateral negotiations rightly believe their circumstances are unique in terms of substance, history and culture. But this does not mean that they cannot learn from each other – and so improve results. This important initiative provides the missing link.

Former Chair of the Kyoto Protocol and Durban Platform Working Groups at UN climate negotiations
International negotiations would certainly benefit from a forum where chairs could exchange experiences and learn from each other.

German Ambassador, Managing Director of the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft
This is an excellent initiative. Foreign Policy and economies increasingly depend on multilateral solutions. Thus, training people in multilateral negotiations and their facilitation has become essential to address global challenges.
Academics welcoming the initiative

This excellent initiative is a unique opportunity to make research on multilateral negotiations useful to policy-makers in their attempts to address global challenges.

Professor of Educational Psychology and Mediation (ret.), University of Hamburg
It is time to identify and secure lessons learned from the experiences of global multi-party negotiations and transform them into best practices. This centre seems excellent to reach this goal.

Even when there is a broad common interest in solving an important set of global problems, failures of negotiations can result from poor negotiation management. This is where a centre focused on managing multilateral negotiations could make a real contribution.

Director of the Institute for Conflict Management, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)
Multilateral Negotiation is all about interests – with regard to both the process and the substance. By refining the strategies of eliciting, formulating and reconciling these interests, the centre may lead modern summit diplomacy to a next level.

Professor of Transnational Environmental Governance and Policy, VU University Amsterdam
The success of multilateral negotiations also rests on the negotiation strategy and management. This project is the first to provide evidence-based, concrete suggestions on how to ensure the success of international conferences.

Professor Emeritus at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Many have identified the importance of the chair in multilateral negotiations, but no one has undertaken a systematic analysis of the requirements for success or even the parameters for analysis that get us beyond simply personality. This centre should do so.

Professor Emeritus of International Relations, University of Southern California
There is a significant gap in global governance in collecting the fragmented experience in facilitation and providing it to future chairs. Governments and civil society have a lot to gain from this.

Associate Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science
Great idea. I don’t think there is anything like it.
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