Global Negotiation
Academy
Global Negotiation Academy 2026
Taking place on 6 - 10 July in Switzerland
Formerly known as the "Global Negotiation Conference"
Hosted at the University of Zurich
The Global Negotiation Academy is the Institute’s flagship annual program – an immersive, high-level training that brings together emerging and established leaders from around the world to advance their skills in negotiation and diplomacy. Through expert-led sessions and peer collaboration, the Academy explores negotiation across real-world contexts while each year’s simulation focuses on a pressing global issue requiring multilateral cooperation.
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Under the 2026 theme “Multilateral Cooperation for Global Health Resilience", this high-level negotiation simulation engages participants in shaping inclusive, consensus-based frameworks for global health security. Set against the backdrop of the 2025 Pandemic Agreement and persistent global funding gaps, it challenges participants to design innovative, equitable, and intergenerational approaches to strengthening health systems and multilateral crisis response.
​​​What is the Global Negotiation Academy (GNA)?​
The GNA was originally founded out of the International Negotiations seminar at the University of Bern where it was held as the 'Global Negotiation Conference' from 2014-2017. The event was then hosted by the Chair of Negotiation and Conflict Management at ETH Zurich 2018-2019 and since 2020 has been hosted by the Chair of Political Philosophy and the Chair of International Relations and Political Economy at the University of Zurich.
Now renamed the Global Negotiation Academy,​ the program consists of three days of interactive workshops and presentations which deal with issues related to negotiation and conflict resolution. The content of the sessions varies each year, examples include leadership and negotiation, peace mediation skills, negotiation engineering, cultural aspects of negotiation, digital diplomacy, negotiation strategy and planning.
​​Negotiation Simulation
On the final day of the academy, the teams take part in an especially designed multiparty simulation. The theme of the simulation always centres on a pressing global challenge.
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The simulation topic for the 2026 Academy is "Multilateral Cooperation for Global Health Resilience".
Previous topics include climate change, large movement of refugees, the response to global pandemics, lethal autonomous weapons systems, business and human rights, humanitarian access to conflict zones, tthe utilisation of space resources and global AI governance.
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Team
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Shontaye Abegaz
Project Lead
Partners & Sponsors
The Global Negotiation Academy is made possible with the generous support of our sponsors and partners.
We thank them for their contributions, their trust, and for believing in our mission to promote negotiation skills to enable young people to address the complex global challenges of our time.
Chair of Political Philosophy and the Chair of International Relations and Political Economy at the University of Zürich
Past Editions​
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