Abraham Path: A Thousand Miles on Foot

The Abraham Path Initiative (API) is an international NGO which plans to sponsor and co-organize a 1,000+ mile journey on foot across the Middle East to raise publicity, money, and to celebrate its achievements in helping to develop local walking trails across the region. Apart from the adventure filmmaker that it sponsors, API has partnered with four local partner organizations, each of which have their own interests at stake in the final design for the walk. Before the walk can move forward, the parties must deal with two main issues:

1. The Route – what the route will be and which of the four national trails will be included.
2. Branding & Communication – what the brand of the thru-hike event will be and how substance will be communicated to global and local audiences.

The negotiation takes place in two phases:

• Phase 1: the pre-meeting phase of the negotiation. In this phase, only two participants (API and the Adventurer) may initiate contact with other participants and only bilaterally.
• Phase 2: the in-person meeting phase, where all parties negotiate at the World Trail Conference.

Major lessons in this simulation include:

• Coalition formation and spoilers in multiparty negotiations. How do parties in negotiation deal with spoilers and develop an effective spoiler management strategy?
• The role of values in negotiation. How do parties negotiate core values?
• How public perceptions can impact the positions parties take at the negotiation table.

This simulation is based on the real negotiations surrounding the development of the Abraham Path. To learn more about the real Abraham Path, please read the Abraham Path Archives.

Abraham Path: A Thousand Miles on Foot Attributes

Time required:	5-7 hours
Number of participants:	6
Teams involved:	None
Agent present:	Non-lawyer
Neutral third party present:	None
Scoreable:	No
Teaching notes available:	Yes