Playing Red and Playing Blue: The 1990-94 Negotiation Miracle in South Africa

Abstract

In my piece Playing Red and Playing Blue, I make use of a popular negotiation training game Red/Blue to analyze the dynamics of the remarkable Mandela/De Klerk negotiations in South Africa in 1990-94. The key question is what precisely was done along the way to interrupt a growing cycle of violence and to begin to establish trust and dialogue, eventually leading to a surprising Win/Win result. I make use of unpublished interviews and biographical materials in addition to more standard negotiation theory. This is, to my knowledge, the first time a prisoners dilemma game like this has been applied to this problem.