Is teaching negotiation too easy, too hard, or both?

Teaching negotiation is easy because teachers and students find the topic fun, interesting, and relevant, which makes most negotiation courses well received. At the same time, teachers may underestimate the challenges in getting their students to think and behave differently in negotiation, which can make it difficult to teach it well. The author examines three teaching challenges in particular: dealing with ethical issues, addressing power imbalances (including those implicated by gender and racial differences), and putting theory into practice in the form of real-world behavior change. This piece is an adaptation of the keynote address that the author delivered on November 14, 2005 at the PON-IRENE conference, New Trends in Negotiation Teaching: Toward a Transatlantic Network, in Cergy, France.