Interactive Problem Solving: Informal Mediation by the Scholar-Practitioner

The microprocess relates to the macroprocess in two ways. Most important, it provides inputs into the macroprocess. Furthermore, it can serve as a metaphor for what needs to happen in the macroprocess of conflict resolution.4 Let me say a few Let me begin by expressing my deep appreciation to the Centrale für Mediation, the Verlag Dr. Otto Schmidt, and the selection committee chaired by Professor Horst Eidenmüller, for awarding me the 2009 Sokrates-Preis für Mediation. I am greatly honored and moved by this recognition of my work. I must admit that I never thought of my work as being in the Socratic tradition, but I have already persuaded myself that this is indeed the case. Within the limits of the time available, I want to tell you a little about the nature of the work that is being recognized by the Sokrates-Preis. For nearly forty years now, my colleagues and I have developed and applied an unofficial, academically-based, third-party approach to the resolution of international and intercommunal conflicts, which I have come to call „interactive problem solving“. The approach is derived from the pioneering work of John Burton1 and is anchored in social-psychological principles. It is a form of unofficial – or what is now often called „track two“ – diplomacy. It has also been described as „informal mediation by the scholar-practitioner“2 to emphasize the unofficial and facilitative form of the intervention and the academic base of the third party. My students and associates have applied this model to various conflicts around the world, including Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, and Colombia. My own regional focus has been primarily (though not exclusively) on the Middle East, with special emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Interactive problem solving is quintessentially social-psychological in its orientation in that its goal is to promote change in individuals – through face-to-face interaction in small groups – as a vehicle for change in larger social systems: in national policies, in political culture, in the conflict system at-large. The core of interactive problem solving is a particular microprocess, best exemplified by problem – solving workshops, which is intended to produce * Remarks prepared for the 13. Mediations-Kongress, 2. April 2009, in Berlin, on the occasion of receiving the Sokrates-Preis für Mediation from the Centrale für Mediation, Köln. 1 Burton, J. W. , Conflict and communication: The use of controlled communication in international relations. London: Macmillan 1969; idem, Deviance, terrorism and war: The process of solving unsolved social and political problems. New York: St. Martin’s Press 1979; idem, Global conflict: The domestic sources of international crisis. Brighton, England: Wheatsheaf 1984. 2 Kelman, H. C. , Interactive problem solving: Informal mediation by the scholar-practitioner. In J. Bercovitch (Ed.), Studies in international mediation: Essays in honor of Jeffrey Z. Rubin (pp. 167–193). New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2002. 3 Kelman, H. C. , Group processes in the resolution of international conflicts: Experiences from the Israeli-Palestinian case. American Psychologist, 52, 212–220 (1997). 4 Kelman, H. C. , Negotiation as interactive problem solving. International Negotiation: A Journal of Theory and Practice, 1 (1), 99–123 (1996). Herbert C. Kelman