Prenegotiations

Abstract

Prenegotiations, despite their misleading name, are the first stage of negotiations. Also commonly referred to as ‘preliminaries’ or ‘talks about talks’, their job is to establish that substantive, around-the-table negotiations are worthwhile, and then to agree the agenda and the necessary procedures for tackling it. In bilateral relationships, these discussions are usually informal and well out of the public gaze. However, in multilateral diplomacy, where the parties are more numerous and procedure is more complex, a good part of the prenegotiations might be both formal and well advertised. For example, the substantive stage of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had 35 participating states and culminated in the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, was preceded by nine months of preparatory talks that produced a document containing their recommendations (Alexander: 29–34).