Roger Fisher
Roger Fisher is the Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project and the Williston Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1958. Prior to joining the Law School faculty in 1958, he worked for the U.S. Government in Paris, practiced law in Washington, D.C., and served as an assistant to the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice.
Professor Fisher has taught and written extensively on international law, international conflict, and for more than a decade has devoted himself almost exclusively to the task of understanding and improving the process by which people, organizations, and governments deal with their differences. Professor Fisher is a member of the steering committee of the Program on Negotiation, a consortium of dispute resolution programs among Harvard, M.I.T., and Tufts.
His latest book, Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate, was co-authored by Daniel Shapiro. In 1998, he co-authored Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge, with Alan Sharp with John Richardson. He also is co-author with Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Elizabeth Borgwardt, and Brian Ganson of Coping with International Conflict: A Systematic Approach to Influence in International Negotiation, published by Prentice Hall in 1997. Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict, with co-authors Elizabeth Kopelman and Andrea Kupfer Schneider, was published by Harvard University Press in the Spring of 1994. The second edition of Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, with co-authors William Ury and Bruce Patton, was published by Penguin Books in 1991. Getting Ready to Negotiate: The Getting to YES Workbook, with co-author Danny Ertel, was published by Penguin Books in June 1995. He is co-author with Scott Brown of Getting Together: Building Relationships As We Negotiate, published by Penguin Books in 1988. In addition, a video workshop for senior executives and corporate training entitled Getting to Yes: The Video Workshop was produced in 1991. His earlier books include: Improving Compliance with International Law; Points of Choice: International Crises and the Role of Law; International Mediation: A Working Guide -- Ideas for the Practitioner; Dear Israelis, Dear Arabs: A Working Approach to Peace; and International Conflict for Beginners.
Professor Fisher has 30 years' experience dealing with international conflict as an advisor and strategist. He advised both the Iranian and United States governments in negotiations for the release of the American hostages in 1981. He helped design the process for the successful Camp David negotiations between President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Begin of Israel. He met with and advised the presidents of three of the five Central American countries in advance of the 1987 Esquipulas II treaty on a regional peace plan; he was present in Guatemala City during the negotiations at the request of President Cerezo of Guatemala.
As an individual, through the consulting firms of Conflict Management Inc. and Vantage Partners, and with the non-profit Conflict Management Group, Professor Fisher has taught and advised corporate executives, labor leaders, attorneys, diplomats, and military and government officials on settlement and negotiation strategy. In recent years he has conducted negotiation seminars in Bonn, Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, London, Milan, San Salvador, Bogota, Mexico City, and the Republic of South Africa.
