ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on ongoing work in the development of a strategic model of negotiation. The model is applied to a range of environments in which negotiation can be utilized to resolve conflicts in two domains: access to resources, and cooperative task performance. These situations include both intelligent agents in multiagent environments, and human applications in multilateral crisis situations. Our focus on Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) has facilitated the joining of two usually distinct areas: the development of autonomous agents in computer science, and crisis bargaining in decision science/political science. In both cases, negotiations are employed in situations where time is critical to some or all parties, resources are scarce, and tasks may require cooperative behavior. The significance of this work lies in its ability to provide a method whereby time spent on negotiation among the agents is minimized, and agreements involving mutual benefit are assured.
