Event Review

Breaking the Deadlock at Doha: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

9 November 2007

 

The aim of this workshop was to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of deadlocks, and methods of breaking them, across multilateral settings. The recurrent deadlocks in the current round of trade negotiations – the Doha Development Agenda – provided an important and topical arena for testing the various explanations and solutions.

The workshop was highlight successful in terms of methodology and substance. It provided a unique opportunity to bring together several disciplines to address the common problem of deadlock. Disciplines represented amongst the panelists were History, Economics, Law, Political Science, and International Relations. A mix of prominent and senior scholars, upcoming researchers, and trade practitioners were chosen for the workshop. All the authors were provided a set of guidelines for their papers by Dr Narlikar, which provided the common ground for enquiry and discussion. Papers were written specifically for the purpose of the workshop, and a central reason for the success of the event was the ability, commitment, and enthusiasm of the authors to engage with a shared set of questions, and to engage in cross-disciplinary discussions and learning. The deliberations resulted in a much more holistic understanding of the process whereby deadlocks are made and are broken.

The success of the workshop is also to be gauged by its attendance: the event turned out to be over-subscribed, necessitating a waiting-list of international participants. This stands in credit not only to the topicality of the event and its relevance across disciplines, but also the excellent publicity initiatives that were taken on by CRASSH. Despite the very packed day-long program, the audience remained engaged until the very end, and there was always a stream of questions and comments after the paper presentations in Q&A.

Another important testimony to the success of any workshop that hopes to engage in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research is the follow-up. All the authors agreed in the closed-door round table discussion that the workshop had addressed a major gap in the literature, and the interdisciplinary perspective that it had sought to provide on deadlocks would have relevance for policy-makers, negotiators, diplomats, academics, and students of diplomacy and negotiation. Dr Narlikar is currently in the process of preparing an edited book, resulting directly from the workshop. The collection includes the team of scholars that presented their work at the workshop, and has also come to include some additional contributors. Given the interest that the workshop has already generated, along with the queries that Dr Narlikar has received regarding the forthcoming publication, it seems realistic to hope that the collection will excite students and practitioners of negotiations across disciplines and issue-areas.

Dr Amrita Narlikar (University Lecturer, Centre of International Studies)

 

 

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