News Release

Institute Publishes Book on French Negotiating Style

December 15, 2003

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Institute of Peace Press has just published French Negotiating Behavior: Dealing with La Grande Nation, written by Charles Cogan, senior research associate at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and affiliate at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Center for European Studies.

"Armed with a formidable understanding of French culture and history," Cogan analyzes the elements of France's particular negotiating style and then examines three recent critical negotiations: entry into NATO, weapons investigation in Iraq, and the Uruguay Round of the GATT. No surprise to any foreign affairs follower this past year, "France's voice," observes Cogan in this pathbreaking study, "has been an alternative to that of the United States for almost fifty years...Though intimately a part of the West,...one cannot expect that an agreement between the two countries is automatic, or even possible." Above all, Cogan reminds current and future negotiators who will face France across the table, "The tradition of la Grande Nation endures."

This is the sixth book in a series examining national negotiating styles published by the United States Institute of Peace Press. The series is part of the Institute's cross-cultural negotiation program, which examines the impact of culture on diplomatic and other negotiations.

For more about the book, including how to order, please visit the Institute's online book catalog.

Journalists interested in interviewing Cogan or in receiving review copies should contact Sheryl Brown by phone at 202.429.3821 or e-mail at sbrown@usip.org.