Former President Martti Ahtisaari honored with Great Negotiator Award!
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School Will Honor Former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award
Co-sponsored with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Great Negotiator Event Offers Real-World Negotiation Discussion to All Students
For Immediate Release
CAMBRIDGE, MA (September 21, 2010) The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School will honor the former president of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martti Ahtisaari with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award on Monday, September 27, 2010 at Spangler Auditorium, Harvard Business School.
The Great Negotiator Award event will include an in-depth discussion among president Ahtisaari and faculty from Harvard University and Tufts University about how he negotiated in complex, highly-charged situations. The discussion is free and open to the public from 1:30- 5 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. No RSVP is necessary.
The Great Negotiator award was created ten years ago by the Program on Negotiation to recognize individuals whose lifetime achievements in the field of negotiation and dispute resolution have had a significant and lasting impact. The Program on Negotiation is a network of faculty and scholars dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and other Boston-area schools. This year, the 2010 Great Negotiator Award event is co-sponsored with the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, which aims to explore the importance of diplomacy in a globalized world.
The former president of Finland (1994-2000), Martti Ahtisaari will be presented with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award for his many achievements in the area of negotiation and diplomacy. He was central to the negotiation process resulting in Namibian independence (from South Africa), in the late 1980s. He later served as the chief U.N. negotiator in Kosovo from 2005-2006, and was the key figure to ending the hostilities between the province of Aceh and Indonesia that had claimed up to 50,000 lives during the 30-year war. Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his distinguished work as a negotiator and mediator.
Martti Ahtisaari is the ninth recipient of the Great Negotiator Award. Previous recipients include Senator George Mitchell, U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, United Nations Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman and CEO of Lazard and the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
“In my experience teaching negotiation at Harvard, many students-including those who plan purely private-sector careers-are absolutely captivated by negotiators who deal successfully with bitterly polarized, life-and-death situations. This year’s Great Negotiator event honoring Martti Ahtisaari offers the opportunity to hear from one of the most accomplished diplomats and learn from a remarkable man,” said James Sebenius, co-chair of this year’s Great Negotiator event who serves on the Program on Negotiation executive committee and is the Gordon Donaldson professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.
“President Ahtisaari is one of the globe’s most experienced and successful diplomats,” said Nicholas Burns, faculty chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project and professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard Kennedy School who co-chaired the 2010 Great Negotiator Award Committee. “I worked with him closely on the effort to secure independence for Kosovo and believe that his insights and wisdom will be of great benefit to our students and faculty. We look forward to welcoming this Nobel laureate to campus for an in-depth discussion of the power of diplomacy and negotiation in the modern world.”
Professors Burns and Sebenius will lead a panel discussion with Ahtisaari that will include PON faculty members Iris Bohnet and Brian Mandell, of the Harvard Kennedy School, Deepak Malhorta, of the Harvard Business School, and Eileen Babbitt of the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Sponsorship of this year’s Great Negotiator award by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School with The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, which will take place at Spangler Auditorium, Harvard Business School, provides an outstanding opportunity for cross-campus dialogue of negotiation and international politics.
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School is an interdisciplinary center focused on negotiation and conflict resolution. Drawing from numerous fields of study, including law, business, government, psychology, economics, public policy, anthropology and education, PON works to connect rigorous scholarship with applied practice. PON presents lectures, discussions, classes and conferences, in addition to producing publications and teaching materials such as the Negotiation newsletter. Founded in 1983 and based at Harvard Law School, PON is a consortium of faculty, teachers and staff at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and other Boston-area schools.
The Future of Diplomacy Project is dedicated to supporting new means of international conflict prevention in a globalized context. Its activities are based around an understanding that military force alone cannot solve the complexity of challenges facing individual nations and regional alliances. The program aims to redefine ‘statecraft’ in a modern context through the lens of leading practitioners that are engaging in innovative means of conflict prevention and resolution at the negotiation table and beyond. The project brings leading diplomats and practitioners to the Harvard Kennedy School to critically reflect on the changing nature of international relations, with experts, students and the wider community. For more information, please visit: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu
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