Education
As the NECOM Chair is no longer active, courses are no longer offered.
In the following an overview of courses that were offered by the NECOM Chair in the past:
Introduction to Negotiation
This course introduced students to the concepts, theories, and strategies of negotiation and was enriched with an extensive exploration of real-life case study examples. The objective of the course was to teach students to recognize, understand, and approach different negotiation situations, by relying on a range of primarily quantitative and some qualitative analytical tools.
The theoretical part of the course covered diverse perspectives on negotiation: with a key focus on game theory, but also covering Harvard principles of negotiation, as well as the negotiation engineering approach developed by Prof. Ambühl at ETH Zurich. The course also dedicated some time to focus on conflict management and introduced students to the social aspects of negotiation.
The empirical part of the course drew on case studies from the realm of international politics and business, including examples from Prof. Ambühl’s work as a career diplomat. Every year, the course also hosted two guest lecturers – representatives from politics or business leaders, who shared practical experience on negotiations from their careers.
Applied Negotiation Seminar
This block seminar served as an extension of the course "Introduction to Negotiation" and provided more detailed insight into key aspects of the field of negotiation and negotiation engineering.
A series of brief lectures outlined foundational aspects of negotiation science, such as rationality and fairness. These included three practitioners that described lessons learnt in their negotiation domains (e.g. labour disputes, diplomacy and business) alongside further case studies drawn from the professional experience of Prof. em. Ambühl
In addition, students applied course inputs in a number of challenging simulations, ranging from simple 30-minute games to full-fledged international ten party negotiations.
Mathematics in Politics and Law
This course presented a selection of topics relevant to real-life elections as well as negotiations from a mathematical perspective, including voting systems, apportionment theory and fairness.
Particular emphasis was put on examples, such as US and Swiss elections (vote splitting, gerrymandering), bequests, bilateral treaties, CO2 negotiations and refugee distribution. The course consisted of core lectures, exercise sessions, as well as distinguished guest lectures that bridged theory and practice.
Simulation of Negotiations
In collaboration with the Global Studies Institute at University of Geneva and international Universities, the NECOM Chair organised each year a simulation seminar intended to offer students the rare chance to participate in a simulated diplomatic negotiation and to analyse and assess the negotiation logic behind it.
The simulations were based on real case disputes, with the topic changing for each year: Nagorno-Karabakh (2021), Cyprus (2020), Donbass Ukraine (2019), Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (2018).