In October 2009, more than 50 of the world's leading negotiation scholars gathered in Istanbul, Turkey for the second in a series of three international conferences designed to critically examine what is taught in contemporary negotiation courses and how we teach them, with special emphasis on how best to "translate" teaching methodology to succeed with diverse, global audiences. In organizing the Istanbul conference, we took particular note of a consistent strain of criticism of the artificiality of a classroom environment, which became a running theme of many of our authors in the project's first year, captured in the previously published RETHINKING NEGOTIATION TEACHING: INNOVATIONS FOR CONTEXT AND CULTURE (DRI Press 2009). It would be hard to imagine a better environment for trying something new and different outside the classroom environment than Istanbul, and we tried to do honor to one of the world's greatest trading cities in our design for the conference. In brief, we dispatched small teams of scholars into the city's famous bazaars, for one exercise in studying how negotiation might be taught more actively, and dispatched teams into the city's less touristy neighborhoods on another occasion, with instructions that required each team to negotiate internally. The resulting rich collection of scholarship is gathered in our current title - VENTURING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM.

In May 2010, more than 50 of the world's leading negotiation scholars gathered in Beijing, China for the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project's third international conference designed to critically examine what is taught in contemporary negotiation courses and how we teach them, with special emphasis on how best to "translate" teaching methodology to succeed with diverse, global audiences. We chose China is the ideal venue to conclude our project's inquiry, not only because of its own long history with negotiation, internal and external to the country, but because it is a nation with which, tensions or no tensions, every other nation must negotiate in the future. Yet, China has been almost unrepresented in the modern literature - at least, in the literature that is expressly about "negotiation." Chinese scholars and practitioners also have yet to assert much influence in the global negotiation training market. Our hope was that the conference would serve as a springboard for the entry into this field, at a sophisticated level, of Chinese and other Asian scholars whose deep experience in many related subjects has yet to be fully felt in their implications for the field of negotiation. The contents of this volume, as well as the fourth and final volume in this teaching series - Educating Negotiators for a Connected World (Honeyman, Coben, and Lee 2012), suggest we may have succeeded in that particular goal.

In May 2008, more than 50 of the world's leading negotiation scholars and trainers gathered in Rome, Italy to embark on a multi-year effort to develop "second generation" global negotiation education. The participants' post-conference writings - the 22 chapters contained in RETHINKING NEGOTIATION TEACHING -critically examine what is currently taught in executive style negotiation courses and how we teach it, with special emphasis on how best to "translate" teaching methodology to succeed with diverse, global audiences. Collectively, the chapters provide a blueprint for designing courses to take account of the most recent discoveries in the growing, multi-disciplinary science of negotiation and confronting the challenges of teaching negotiation in cross-cultural settings.

Although negotiations are an ever-present part of our everyday lives, many of us know little as to why we sometimes get our way, while on other occasions we walk away feeling frustrated that we did not reach the desired agreement or we may have left too much value on the table. Knowing how to gain the upper hand to get what is necessary from a negotiation is particularly important when the stakes are high, especially in a situation where a negotiator feels the options and choices are limited yet something must be achieved. A negotiation can cause a lot of stress, making the stakes even higher and the negotiation dynamics more difficult to manage. New communication technologies play an increasingly important role in day-to-day negotiations. It is important to be aware of these situations in order to know what works (and what does not work) and how to maximize the outcome in such negotiation situations. The contributions in this book - as well as the exclusive interview with Chris Voss, an international business negotiator - capture the key concepts and the most important learning points on how to gain the upper hand in high stake negotiations. The book deals in a concise way with proven tools, such as recognizing escalation mechanisms and the techniques on how to de-escalate or deal with emotions. Readers will gain access to crucial insights from professionals, like the FBI or US army negotiators, who are experienced in negotiating under extreme pressure in situations where lives are literally on the line. The book covers newer developments, such as involving a deal facilitator and conducting e-negotiations. The book also includes an example of role-playing a negotiation in a conflict situation, where the stakes are high and a lot of emotions are present on both sides of the table.

In 2011 more than 60 of the world's leading negotiation scholars gathered in Beijing for the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching project's third and final international conference. The event, like the preceding conferences in Rome and Istanbul, was designed to inspire a diverse and energetic group of scholars to push forward their thinking on what is taught and how it is taught in contemporary negotiation courses. The resulting productivity required two volumes. This one wraps up the project as a whole. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national teams address the challenges of teaching negotiation in the face of profound cultural difference; move forward a project special focus on "wicked problems" (those ill-defined, ambiguous challenges for which even defining "the problem" is elusive, let alone attaining a "solution"); design innovative and concrete teaching tools for use both in and outside of the classroom; and introduce an array of new topics for the field, ranging from the possibilities of "informal" education to the role of physical movement in negotiation instruction.

Rethinking and revising the established knowledge and practice of conflict resolution and management, this innovative book brings together complementary perspectives to consider what novel approaches to conflict need to be invented after the collapse of the World Order.