More strategic nonviolence practitioners are finally beginning to make the clear connections between nonviolent action and negotiation--both are pieces in what some simply call constructive conflict. Even some of the skills overlap, but they are not identical, certainly. For instance, as Gandhi showed, the best strategic nonviolent planners and executors of a strategic campaign designed to elicit, at last, an invitation to the negotiating table, those planners and actionists do not necessarily make the best negotiators. Gandhi came back from the 1931 Roundtable negotiations in London with results that vastly disappointed his fellow leaders and it was another 17 years until freedom.
Each skill bank is complex and variable. What about the related third set of competencies for mediation, another nonviolent role, at least potentially? A mediator's approach can often increase the effectiveness of a nonviolent campaign by greatly equalizing the power at the negotiating table. Indeed, that is one central role of the mediator, to preserve the dignity of all parties at all times so that honest and productive negotiations can happen. If one party feels disrespected and devalued, the negotiations are in danger.