Conflict Negotiation and Resolution

Running head: CONFLICT NEGOTIATION AND RESOLUTION
Conflict Negotiation and Resolution
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1
CONFLICT NEGOTIATION AND RESOLUTION
A historical political thriller, Thirteen Days is an American film that revolves around the
Cuban Missile Crisis. A 2001 released the movie shows the perspective of US political
leadership on the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. The film is often thought to be based on the book,
“Thirteen Days” written by Robert F Kennedy but in reality it is not so.
Part 1:
The two ways used by the parties to communicate tacitly are mentioned below:
I. Placing of intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba.
II. Kennedy’s decision of not to attack Cuba initially (Peltonen, 2019).
The two explicit ways that the parties communicate are outlined below:
I. The announcement that US Naval ship will not allow any ships to enter Cuban water.
II. The offer of Soviet to remove missiles from Cuban side by back channel communication.
A personal message by the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offering to remove the missiles
from Cuba in exchange of the assurance from the US that it would not invade the Cuban soil
definitely played a huge role in negotiating the Cuban missiles crisis in 1962. Thus, the explicit
communication was more effective in avoiding the Cuba missiles crisis.
Part 2:
Following are the two direct threats made by one of the parties to the Cuba Missiles crisis at the
face of the other party:
I. The blockade step taken by the US which is an act of war in itself. The US administration
decided to block all ships from entering the Cuban shore without checking by US naval
forces

2
CONFLICT NEGOTIATION AND RESOLUTION
II. The authorization of military attacks on the missile sites in Cuba by the President John F
Kennedy (Krebs, 2015).
Apart from direct threats at the face of one party by the other party to the Cuban missiles crisis
there were instances when a party saves the face of the other party by its actions. Here are two
such instances where one of the parties to the crisis saved the face of the other party to the crisis.
I. Final attempt by John F Kennedy to avoid a military confrontation by sending his brother to
negotiate with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
II. The removal of Jupiter missiles from Turkey by the US administration to avoid military
confrontation with the Soviet and Cuba.
The strategy to save the face of another party proved to more effective in avoiding the military
confrontation which could have escalated to the use of Nuclear weapons. Thus, removal of
missiles from Cuba by the Soviet and removal of missiles from Turkey by the US proved more
effective.
Part 3:
US keeping its Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet removing its missiles from Cuban soil.
From Soviet perspectives US removing Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Soviet gets to keep the
missiles in Cuba (Bernstein, 2015).
In first case it is fully beneficial for the US administration whereas in the second case the Soviet
would be in a position of strength.
US had a better BATNA as it has its own missiles in Turkey along with the Cuban sites where
Soviet kept the missiles.