Diplomatic Negotiation

162 Diplomatic Negotiation
reason to review how we negotiate today in complex settings where many countries try to
find a common denominator.
The proliferation of nation-states, growing necessity of having treaties ratified, rising
internal turmoil in many modern states, increasing regulation of international issues
and the growing involvement of non-state actors create a multilateral complexity that
seems to prohibit effective international negotiation processes and decision-making
(Brower, 2000: 77–78). Comparing then and now, perhaps the Westphalia negotiation
process was not so ineffective after all. That does not mean, however, that the regime that
Westphalia established will be as suitable a framework for cultural, social and economic
developments as it was in the mid-seventeenth century. After all, Westphalia was a typical
European solution for European problems of centuries ago. The ‘Eurocentric’ character
of the Westphalian system (Harding and Lim, 1999: 10) simply may not fit the globalized
world of today and tomorrow.