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In the anarchic political system of international relations, negotiations are everywhere. As the literature has long noted, negotiations articulate an international level with domestic levels. But they also bring together a plurality of international (and national) games, products of the division of labour, the sectorisation of activities, and strategies of alliances between states. In cases as diverse as the European Union’s military intervention in the Central African Republic or the negotiation of the Law of the Sea, the possibilities for action and the increase in individual and collective gains are largely based on this complexity of the international social space. The combination of different interests, expectations and resources of states and their representatives, participants in these interlocking horizontal games, is a powerful driver of value creation.