Works
- Ripe for Resolution: Conflict and Intervention in Africa, 1985
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
Ripeness and the mutually hurting stalemate. Parties resolve a conflict when they are ready to, which usually means they perceive a mutually hurting stalemate, a situation in which neither side can win and continuing will be very harmful to each, together with a sense that a negotiated way out exists. Ripeness is a matter of perception and is necessary for negotiation without guaranteeing it. Caveat: Ripeness theory has drawn criticism on substance and method, and Zartman's cases are international conflicts.
What it explains
Zartman explains why the same proposal fails one quarter and succeeds the next: parties settle when they feel stuck in a costly position and can see a way out. Timing a proposal to that moment, and making the way out visible, matters as much as its terms.