The Specifics of Negotiations in Latin America: Tough Bargaining vs. Consensus Building

The article examines the specifics of negotiation processes in Latin American countries, which are currently of interest from both an academic and practical perspective, particularly for Russian diplomacy and business involved in cooperation with Latin American countries. Using the example of negotiations in Latin America, the article analyzes the potential for conducting negotiations from a bargaining perspective and finding compromise solutions. The study draws on the structuralfunctional approach to negotiations developed by M.M. Lebedeva, which identifies key elements in the negotiation process – strategies and tactics. This approach is applied to the analysis of negotiation processes in Latin America. It is shown that, despite the prevalence of a rather hardbargaining strategy and its characteristic tactics, the region has managed to avoid large-scale armed conflicts for decades. The effectiveness of this negotiation model is explained by a complex set of historical and cultural factors, including the role of the army as a guarantor of stability, the influence of the Catholic Church on mediation, and the colonial legacy that shaped a heightened sense of sovereignty and the primacy of legal mechanisms. An analysis of the evolution of Latin American diplomacy demonstrates the uniqueness of negotiation practices, calling into question the universality of the strategy proposed by R. Fischer and W. Ury, which involves “principled negotiations” for long-term problem resolution. However, it is noted that the findings relate only to Latin America and cannot be automatically generalized to other regions of the world. 

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