Batna

Province in Algeria, situated in the Aurès Mountains, on the northern edge of the Sahara; area 37,180 sq km/14,355 sq mi; population (1994 est) 922,000. The capital is Batna.

Batna

Town in and administrative capital of the Batna department in Algeria, standing on a plain, with a good water supply, between the Aurès Mountains to the south and the Batna Mountains to the north, 100 km/60 mi southwest of Constantine and on the northern edge of the Sahara; Population (1998) 242,500. Batna was founded in 1844 as a French military station to guard the el-Kantara Pass between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara. The city has a rectangular layout and, as well as trading in agricultural and forest products (especially cedar), it has a tourist industry based on the Roman ruins at Tazoult-Lambese and Timgad (Timgad lies 40 km/25 mi to the east of Batna town).

BATNA

Key factor in negotiating strategy. In order to know whether or not to accept a negotiated settlement it is important to know whether it is possible to obtain a better outcome by alternative means. The settlement should be accepted if it is deemed better than the BATNA. It is difficult to arrive at a negotiated settlement with a party that has, or perceives it has, a good BATNA. This means that a good BATNA makes for a stronger position for negotiation, and that in order to negotiate successfully, a party should know both its own and its adversary's BATNAs.

The concept was developed by US academics and consultants Roger Fisher and William Ury in Getting to Yes (1981).