Lessons from the Swiss Cheese Map

Shari Motro, now a universtiy professor of law in the U.S. relates an intriguing story of how the Swiss Cheese Map which he himself helped to draw in Oslo in 1995 blew up a virtual agreement between Palestinians and Israel.

The map was introduced just 24 hours before the agreement was to be signed. When Yasir Arafat saw it, he stormed out of the negotiating room. Uri Savir, Israel’s chief negotiator at the talks, recalls the Palestinian leader’s reaction:

Arafat glared at [the map] in silence, then sprang out of his chair and declared it to be an insu­erable humiliation. “These are cantons! You want me to accept cantons! You want to destroy me!”

Motri's article however goes further than telling what went wrong, and provides us with a series of lessons he learned concerning the use of maps in diplomacy and negotiation, illustrated by a series of maps.
You can access the article here on 'legal Affairs', or dowload a pdf version here.



For those who want to dig deeper into the issue of cheese maps, you can visit an interactive map of the Swiss Cheese Landscape here

 Or read more about this Canada Cheese Map here