In a way, the Obama presidency is the biggest test that the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School has ever faced. The program, founded in 1983, has long been a leading source of research on which negotiation methods — and which mediation and arbitration methods — are most effective, and which backfire. It offers courses to law school students and to the general public and frequently lends its services to companies and governments mired in intractable situations.
And perhaps its most...