After serving in World War II as a weather reconnaissance pilot, Fisher worked on the Marshall Plan in Paris under W. Averell Harriman.
After having lost many of his friends in the war and seeing so many costly disputes as a litigator, Fisher became intrigued with the art and science of how we manage our differences.
In the late 1960s, Fisher conceived of a court-style debate show that handled one contemporary policy issue each week.
Follow-up books expanded his thinking about dealing with relationship challenges (Getting Together with Scott Brown), preparing effectively (Getting Ready to Negotiate with Danny Ertel), tools for dealing with bad actors and challenging parties (Beyond Machiavelli with Elizabeth Kopelman and Andrea Kupfer Schneider), galvanizing a group to do effective problem-solving (Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge with Alan Sharp and John Richardson), and the role of emotions in working relationships (Beyond Reason with Daniel Shapiro).
Fisher's 2005 work, Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate (with co-author Daniel Shapiro, a Harvard psychologist) identifies five "core concerns" that everyone cares about: autonomy, affiliation, appreciation, status, and role.
Among these efforts included his involvement in Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's trip to Jerusalem and the Camp David summit that led to an Israeli–Egyptian peace treaty.
President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance created 23 drafts in 13 days before they had a proposal to which both sides could agree.
[4] He advised both the Iranian and United States governments in negotiations for the release of the American hostages in 1981 where his work helped lead to the breakthrough that enabled the resolution.
From the 1980s to the mid 1990s, at the direction of then Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Bishop Joseph Seoka, he and his colleagues at the Conflict Management group, the African National Congress, the National Party, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Azanian People's Organization, and the Inkatha Freedom Party taught interest-based negotiation processes to the leaders of all the factions as well as advised them and their negotiators.
If the President of the United States wanted to activate nuclear weapons, he would be required to kill the volunteer to retrieve the codes.