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.
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Notes
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘The Problem-Solving Workshop in Conflict Resolution’, in R.L. Merritt (ed.), Communication in International Politics (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972) pp. 168–204
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘An Interactional Approach to Conflict Resolution and its Application to Israeli-Palestinian Relations’, International Interactions, 6 (1979) pp. 99–122
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Interactive Problem Solving: A Social-Psychological Approach to Conflict Resolution’, in W. Klassen (ed.), Dialogue toward Interfaith Understanding (Tantur/Jerusalem: Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research, 1986) pp. 293–314
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Interactive Problem Solving: The Uses and Limits of a Therapeutic Model for the Resolution of International Conflicts’, in V.D. Volkan, J.V. Montville, and D.A. Julius (eds), The Psychodynamics of International Relationships, Vol. II: Unofficial Diplomacy at Work (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1991) pp. 145–60
Herbert C. Kelman and Stephen P. Cohen, ‘Resolution of International Conflict: An Interactional Approach’, in S. Worchel and W.G. Austin (eds), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1986) pp. 323–42.
John W. Burton, Conflict and Communication: The Use of Controlled Communication in International Relations (London: Macmillan, 1969)
John W. Burton, Deviance, Terrorism and War: The Process of Solving Unsolved Social and Political Problems (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1979)
John W. Burton, Global Conflict: The Domestic Sources of International Crisis (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf, 1984).
See Harold H. Saunders, ‘The Arab-Israeli Conflict in a Global Perspective’, in J.D. Steinbruner (ed.), Restructuring American Foreign Policy (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1988) pp. 221–51.
Ronald J. Fisher and Loraleigh Keashly, ‘Third Party Interventions in Intergroup Conflicts: Consultation is not Mediation’, Negotiation Journal, 4 (1988) pp. 381–93.
Jacob Bercovitch, ‘A Case Study of Mediation as a Method of International Conflict Resolution: The Camp David Experience’, Review of International Studies, 12 (1986) pp. 43–65.
Herbert C. Kelman (ed.), International Behavior: A Social-Psychological Analysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965) p. 596
quoted in Jacob Bercovitch, Social Conflicts and Third Parties: Strategies of Conflict Resolution (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1984) p. 138.
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Creating the Conditions for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 26 (1982) pp. 39–75.
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Applying a Human Needs Perspective to the Practice of Conflict Resolution: The Israeli-Palestinian Case’, in John W. Burton (ed.), Conflict: Human Needs Theory (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990) pp. 283–97.
Urie Bronfenbrenner, ‘The Mirror Image in Soviet-American Relations: A Social Psychologist’s Report’, Journal of Social Issues, 17 (3) (1961) pp. 45–56
Ralph K. White, ‘Images in the Context of International Conflict: Soviet Perceptions of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.’, in Herbert C. Kelman (ed.), International Behavior: A Social-Psychological Analysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965) pp. 238–76.
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘The Political Psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: How Can We Overcome the Barriers to a Negotiated Solution?’, Political Psychology, 8 (1987) pp. 347–63.
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘Israelis and Palestinians: Psychological Prerequisites for Mutual Acceptance’, International Security 3 (1978) pp. 162–86
Herbert C. Kelman, ‘A Behavioral Science Perspective on the Study of War and Peace’, in R. Jessor (ed.), Perspectives on Behavioral Science: The Colorado Lectures (Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1991) pp. 245–75.
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© 1992 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Kelman, H.C. (1992). Informal Mediation by the Scholar/Practitioner. In: Bercovitch, J., Rubin, J.Z. (eds) Mediation in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375864_4
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