WASHINGTON -- Negotiating on the Edge: North Korean Negotiating Behavior has recently been named an "Outstanding Academic Book" by CHOICE, the highly respected library review journal produced by the Association of College and Research Libraries. Written by former Institute program officer Scott Snyder and published by USIP Press, the book traces the historical and cultural roots of North Korea's negotiating behavior.

Drawing on interviews from an eminent cast of U.S. officials and marshaling extensive research on North Korea past and present, the book explores how economic desperation and the end of the Cold War have forced North Korea to modify its negotiating objectives and style. With a particular focus on the U.S. negotiating experience with North Korea in the 1990s, Negotiating on the Edge constructs a clear framework to explain North Korea's unconventional negotiating style. Recent South Korean and multilateral attempts to engage Pyongyang have led North Korea to employ a range of negotiating tactics in Pyongyang 's diplomatic arsenal that are examined in this remarkable study.

A publication review by former South Korean minister of foreign affairs Han Sung-Joo called the book: "The best, and perhaps the only full fledged, analysis of North Korean negotiating behavior...an indispensable manual for those who have the tough luck of negotiating with the North Koreans or others, if any, who are like them."

The Financial Times in describing Snyder's approach to examining North Korea's negotiating strategies and techniques noted: "Snyder aims to show what makes the country [North Korea] tick, not by direct study of life on the ground, but rather by charting and analyzing the seemingly whimsical behaviour of the senior North Korean apparatchiks who are sent to negotiate with the west."

Currently the Asia Foundation's representative in Korea, Scott Snyder served from 1994 to 1999 as a program officer in the Research and Studies Program of the United States Institute of Peace. During his tenure at the Institute, Snyder organized a working group on U.S. policy toward North Korea. The author of numerous articles, he has been an Abe fellow and is member of the Asia Society.

Author Scott Snyder

Negotiating on the Edge was published by USIP Press in 1999 and featured in a special Institute Current Issues Briefing earlier this year (See archived video from the webcast online).

Copies of Negotiating on the Edge are available for $17.50 (paperback, ISBN 1-878379-95-X ) from USIP Press at 1-800-868-8064 (U.S. toll free) or (703) 661-1590.