Exploring West Point'S Negotiating Skills

In 2008, when Lindsey Graham arrived at Bayji in the northern Iraqi city of Graham, the first thing to do was to invite the heads of the local police station to have lunch at the US military base in 15 months.

Act as

Graham led more than 42 soldiers in the platoon to spend time with Iraqi police officers, such as playing volleyball together.

In less than 4 months, the chief constable appointed her as an honorary member of the tribe and gave her a Arabia name, meaning "smart woman".

This is a carefully planned strategy.

Before moving to Iraq, Graham took part in a 40 week course at West Point - teaching leaders how to negotiate.

The course was born of the need for officers to improve their negotiating skills. All cases were from officers' experience with mullahs and Imam, imams, village elders and government officials.

Graham said: "I learned that the key to negotiation is to build a team, find a middle ground and solve problems."

At the end of her service period, the Iraqi police could operate alone without the help of the US Army.

This result is exactly the result.

Weiss said: "the vast majority of these officers do manage small towns, and religious leaders in the local communities.

Indeed, these officers do not necessarily have to reach a peace agreement or a cease-fire agreement, but even small negotiations -- from persuading the Iraqi police to adopting different security procedures to encourage small town leaders to pport food and resources in different ways -- are often of great strategic importance.

Weiss said: "the skill of negotiation can be used even at the lowest level of command system: Lieutenant, lieutenant and captain.

Their responsibilities have shifted from being good infantry to mediating and managing large areas among tribes.

This course teaches students when to use force, when to use persuasion, and to help people make the right choices.

Two years ago, Weiss created the West Point Negotiation Project, a think-tank, to help military officers in small combat forces to study and improve negotiation skills.

The project basically followed a similar think tank: Harvard Negotiation Project.

The Harvard Project was founded in 1979, focusing on the innovative negotiation strategy of the two circles of politics and commerce.

Weiss acknowledged that negotiations in the conference room are not the same thing as negotiations on the battlefield, but they show similarities.

He said: "although the content and the details are different, the variability and pressure of negotiations are highly risky, complicated and urgent.

The two applies the same set of tools and training methods: how to build relationships with people who do not trust you? How to control perception? How to question assumptions? We teach people how to systematically change the rules of the game.

Aram Donigian, co-founder of the West Point negotiation project, said that officers trained in negotiation had always been able to better protect their soldiers, obtain intelligence and calm violence incidents. Alam Donigian

Alam is also a graduate of Tucker business school and West Point.

"Negotiation is about how to communicate effectively with people.

I can define victory as "I beat you."

But what about our communication next? Do we really relate to each other? How much trust do we have? In order to get the best results, I have to spend time listening to each other's concerns, needs and fears.

Nikolaus Trotta, a West Point graduate, was sent to Iraq in 2004.

This spring, he will graduate from Tucker business school and work in an investment bank.

He said that negotiation knowledge learned from curriculum and military will benefit himself: "I learned to look at the whole situation and try to put myself in the other's shoes."

This is not a sign of premature concession or weakness, but trying to find the best solution to achieve a win-win situation.