Humanitarian Negotiation: A Handbook for Securing Access, Assistance, and Protection for Civilians in Armed Conflict

We would also like to express our gratitude to the representatives of the government, the military and armed groups in Macedonia and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as to civilians in these countries, who shared so much of their time and experience with us. Special thanks go to the members of our research team in Côte d’Ivoire – Dr. Dieneba Doumbia, N’guessan Anon, Kévin Adou and Mariame Maïga from the University of Cocody-Abidjan – who approached this study with dedication and great enthusiasm. We are very grateful for the invaluable case material they gathered for us. We are deeply indebted to William Ury for his thoughtful comments and advice on theoretical questions regarding the practice of negotiation. We would also like to express our thanks to Josh Weiss and Ralph Wipfli for their help during the years of the Humanitarian Negotiators Network. Their generous and voluntary contributions produced many helpful theoretical insights. Mark Cutts, Sanda Kimbimbi, Raouf Mazou, François Stamm and Toon Vanden – hove proved indispensable with regard to the organisation of interviews. Frédéric Fournier, Johanna Grombach-Wagner, Martin Griffiths, Darko Jordanov, Larry Minear, David Petrasek and Antonia Potter all offered extremely useful comments and suggestions at various stages. Our main thanks are reserved for the members of the study’s Advisory Committee: Claire Bellmann, Training for Senior Management, ICRC; JeanPierre Gontard, Deputy Director of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Geneva; Roy Herrmann, Senior Policy Officer (Operations), Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, UNHCR; Dr. Jean Rossiaud, Scientific Coordinator for the Multi-faculty Programme on Humanitarian Action, University of Geneva; and Dr. Michel Veuthey, Vice President of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Geneva, and Associate Pro – fessor at the Institut du Droit de la Paix et du Développement, University of Nice. The advisors not only helped us to make contacts in the field and to organise interviews, but also their comments stimulated a great deal of thinking and debate. None of this work would have been possible without the generous financial backing of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN) and the enthusiasm shown by its Executive Secretary, Randall Harbour. ICRC and UNHCR also contributed to this project financially and we appreciate the kind support that they provided throughout the process. Last, but not least, we would like to thank Hugo Slim, who directed the project and provided invaluable advice, encouragement and input throughout the research and writing phases.