International Alliance for Science Diplomacy: Interpersonal Skills as a Predictor of a Sound Negotiation Process—American and European Self-Perception

In this chapter, Mauro Galluccio and Mattia Sanna focus their joint attention on a multidisciplinary research project conceived and directed by Mauro Galluccio on two sides of the Atlantic, the United States and the European Union (EU). The main objective is to better understand how highly trained negotiators and diplomats reason, feel, and behave in complex negotiation processes under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, and if interpersonal skills could be a predictor of a sound negotiating process. Our findings suggest that there is a variability in negotiation outcome that can be linked to an individual negotiator and it appears that a portion of this variability can be related specifically to negotiators’ interpersonal skills rather than to other variables. Research in this area has the potential to improve both negotiation research and evidence-informed training for negotiators.