East–West Negotiations

Abstract

In this chapter, international all-male negotiations are analysed from a gender perspective. The chapter shows that gender is also a useful conceptual framework to uncover patterns of masculine power relations in international negotiations when applied to cases that do not involve women negotiators. In the first part of the chapter, gender is operationalised to unfold how practices of homosociality are mainstreamed and seen as “natural” in international negotiations. In the second part of the chapter, a case study is conducted of a Soviet firm-restructuring project taking place in the immediacy of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and involving a group of western organisational consultants. Gender is used to identify patterns of masculinities, expressed in two types of masculinities: the benevolent and the authoritarian leader.