Madeleine Albright was interviewed for the American Secretaries of State Project, a collaboration among faculty members at HBS, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Law School designed to extract lessons in negotiation and diplomacy for today’s leaders in public service and business.

Madeleine Albright was interviewed for the American Secretaries of State Project, a collaboration among faculty members at HBS, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Law School designed to extract lessons in negotiation and diplomacy for today’s leaders in public service and business.

“Many people today have forgotten the power of smart, tough diplomacy,” asserts HBS negotiation scholar James Sebenius. Fortunately, a cross-Harvard initiative, the American Secretaries of State Project, is uncovering and archiving lessons from master US diplomats with unparalleled experience resolving high-stakes global conflicts.

A joint venture of faculty members at HBS, the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (HLS), the project is developing case studies, video teaching tools, documentary films, and a graduate course—all informed by in-depth interviews with every living former US secretary of state. “Our aim is to gather, study, and disseminate negotiation and deal-making insights that are relevant not just for diplomats, but also for leaders in business, finance, and law,” says Sebenius, the Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration.

The videotaped interviews—to date with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James A. Baker III, Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, and Rex Tillerson—have been conducted by the project’s co-directors: Sebenius; Nicholas Burns, an HKS professor and former US ambassador; and HLS professor Robert Mnookin.

Sebenius describes the conversations as remarkably candid. “We did extensive research and knew which challenging negotiations we wanted to focus on with each secretary,” he notes. “Once we asked the initial questions, the back-and-forth was freewheeling and fascinating. We probed for the toughest aspects of each negotiation, how it was handled, and what might have been done differently.” The interviews offer behind-the-scenes glimpses into hardball bargaining, as well as the painstaking work of consensus building—revealing valuable insights for research, teaching, and practice. Although every negotiation is unique, Sebenius says, “Common themes have emerged, such as the importance of building relationships before you get to the negotiating table, persistence, and pursuing creative options.”

The first of two books related to the project, Kissinger the Negotiator (Harper Collins, 2018), analyzes Kissinger’s overall approach to making deals and resolving conflicts.

The project’s most impactful outcome so far has been the development of a graduate course, Negotiation and Diplomacy. Taught jointly by the three project co-directors, the course intentionally enrolls equal numbers of HBS, HKS, and HLS students, and explores how modern diplomacy and negotiation can effectively overcome barriers to agreement in civil and interstate conflicts, as well as in trade and finance. The course emphasizes the “how” of diplomacy and helps students develop and practice negotiation skills critical to success in public service and the private sector.

“This is a distinctively Harvard opportunity that is preparing students to make a difference at the highest levels,” says Sebenius.

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