ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the key ideas and practice protocols for effective group deliberation, conflict resolution and decision-making. It explores how these processes have been, and can be, used in international settings to advance global problem-solving. The chapter looks at the particular problems of seeking to negotiate with parties from different cultures, nationalities and nation-states, further complexifying already complex forms of negotiation, mediation, facilitation and dispute resolution. It illustrates many sites where such processes have been productively used to form public policy, resolve complex lawsuits and competing interests over scarce resources, and form new institutions, organizations and even nations. The chapter suggests that all modern lawyers, politicians, organizational leaders and participants in group life should learn the theories about, and best practices for, good process design and facilitation. It also suggests that the study and practice of multi-party dispute resolution.
