This volume represents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of language and behavior in both formal public negotiation, as well as less formal communicative interaction settings. Its central theme is that language use plays a crucial role in the attainment and/or exercise of power. The notion of power, in this context, is seen as the measure of one's ability or inability to obtain or maintain personal objectives through discourse. The contributions focus specifically upon interaction between individual discourse strategies and the exercise of power.