ABSTRACT
This introduction lays out the book’s conceptual argument that international negotiations may take place in contexts in which the rules of the game are subject to different subjective interpretations, giving rise to misperceptions and – once they become apparent – to open contestation. The objective here is to encapsulate how such a focus can reveal the limitations of existing rationalist and constructivist conceptualizations of bargaining in contexts of uncertainty and, in turn, open up new issues and questions in the study of international negotiations. The chapter then introduces the empirical case of EU-West Africa negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements, and shows how this book’s novel conceptual framework on international negotiations in context of multiple and overlapping subjective sheds new light on the emergence of repeated impasse situations. The rest of the chapter unpacks this argument and briefly addresses methodological problems faced in the course of the research.
