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Listen to The Closer, Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard. Today I'm speaking

with George Mitchell, former majority leader of the US Senate and special envoy

from the US to Northern Ireland and the Middle East. His new memoir is called The Negotiator. Senator Mitchell,

thanks so much for joining me. Thank you, Allison. So in the final section of your

book you say that no two negotiations are the same, but the methods used to gain resolution are

strikingly similar. What are those methods? Well based on my experience I think

first it has to be a certain level of knowledge about the history and

nature of the conflict. The circumstances I'm describing involve myself an American being involved in conflicts

in primarily in Northern Ireland in the Middle East. I also spent a good bit of time in the Balkans but didn't

have a formal role there. And I tried to fully inform myself by reading dozens of books in connection with both conflicts.

So I think the first step is becoming informed and having some level of knowledge about the history and the issues that you confront.

In private disputes, which I've done, the same principle applies, although obviously it's not the same circumstance.

The second thing I'll say is, at least with respect to the conflict resolution I've been involved in, an awareness

and recognition that the people involved in conflict in foreign lands must have ownership of the issues and of the

resolution because they're the ones are going to have to live with the consequences of any resolution.

On the first day of formal negotiations in Northern Ireland, I said to the assembled delegates representing 10 political parties and two

governments, Britain and Ireland, that I did not come there with an American plan.

There was no Clinton plan, there was no Mitchell plan.

I said any agreement that you are able to reach must be your own. And nearly two years later

when I drafted the document that became the Good Friday Peace Agreement. I was acutely conscious of that and

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