Informal Mediation by the Scholar/Practitioner

Abstract

For some years, I have been actively engaged in the development and application of an approach to the resolution of international conflicts for which I use the term ‘interactive problem solving’. The fullest — indeed, the paradigmatic — application of the approach is represented by problem-solving workshops,² although it involves a variety of other activities as well. In fact, I have increasingly come to see interactive problem solving as an approach to the macro-processes of international conflict resolution, in which problem-solving workshops and similar micro-level activities are integrally related to official diplomacy. The approach derives most directly from the work of John Burton.³ While my work follows the general principles laid out by Burton, it has evolved in its own directions, in keeping with my own disciplinary background, my particular style, and the cases on which I have focused my attention. My work has concentrated since 1974 on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian component of that conflict. I have also done some work, however, on the Cyprus conflict and have maintained an active interest in several other intense, protracted identity conflicts at the international or intercommunal level.

This chapter was written while the author was a Jennings Randolph Distinguished Fellow at the US Institute of Peace. The views expressed in the chapter are the author’s views alone; they do not necessarily reflect views of the US Institute of Peace. The work on which this chapter is based has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the US Institute of Peace to the Harvard University Center for International Affairs I am greatly indebted, both to the granting agencies and to the Center, for their generous support of my action research program.