ABSTRACT
There is a great deal of difference between negotiations that are carried out in full public view and negotiations that are conducted behind closed doors. A useful way to contrast public and private negotiations is to compare the acting techniques used by stage actors and the acting techniques used by television actors. A public negotiation is like a large stage production. A private negotiation is like a TV talk show. Most environmental negotiations are public negotiations. Occasionally an environmental negotiation will combine public phases with private phases, but in these exceptional cases the public style of negotiating predominates. Private environmental negotiations are usually fleeting interludes between extended periods of public negotiations. In fact, informal public negotiations are the most common form of environmental negotiations. There are a handful of informal private negotiations. Formal private environmental negotiations are rare; formal public environmental negotiations are nonexistent.
