Negotiation lies at the core of preventive diplomacy. This study is unusual in approaching preventive diplomacy by issue areas: it looks at the way in which preventive negotiation has been practiced, notes its characteristics, and then suggests how lessons can be transferred from one area to another, but only when particular conditions warrant such a transfer. The distinguished contributing authors treat eleven issues: boundary problems, territorial claims, ethnic conflict, divided states, state disintegration, cooperative disputes, trade wars, transboundary environmental disputes, global natural disasters, global security conflicts, and labor disputes. The editor's conclusion draws out general themes about the nature of preventive diplomacy.

Contributions by: Mark Anstey, Anatole Ayissi, Sukyong Choi, James Goodby, Fen Osler Hampson, P Terrence Hopmann, Victor Kremenyuk, Winfried Lang, Kjell-Åke Nordquist, Timothy Sisk, Gunnar Sjöstedt, Bertram Spector, I. William Zartman