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Interactive Problem Solving: An Approach to Conflict Resolution and Its Application in the Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Herbert C. Kelman
Herbert C. Kelman*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

For more than 25 years, my colleagues and I have been developing and applying an unofficial, academically based, third-party approach to the analysis and resolution of international and ethnic conflicts, which I have come to call interactive problem solving. The approach is derived from the seminal work of John Burton (see Burton 1969, 1979, 1984; Kelman 1972). It is anchored in social-psychological principles and follows a scholar/practitioner model. Our practice is informed by theoretical analyses and empirical studies of international conflict, social influence, and group interaction. The experience gained in practice, in turn, contributes to theory building and to the evaluation and refinement of our intervention model. The work thus represents an integration and continuing interaction between practice, research, and theory building.

The fullest—in a sense, the paradigmatic—application of the approach is represented by problem-solving workshops, which bring together politically influential members of conflicting parties in a private, confidential setting for direct, noncommittal communication. Workshops are designed to enable the parties to explore each other's perspective and, through a joint process of creative problem solving, to generate new ideas for mutually satisfactory solutions to their conflict. The ultimate goal is to transfer the insights and ideas gained from these interactions into the political debate and decision-making processes in the two communities.

Problem-solving workshops are not negotiating sessions and they are not intended to simulate and certainly not to substitute for official negotiations.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 190 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1998

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Footnotes

*

This article was presented as the 1997 Grawemeyer Award lecture at the University of Louisville on October 16, 1997. The author received the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order for a series of articles expounding the concept of interactive problem solving. These publications are marked with an asterisk (*) in the References to the present article. The Grawemeyer Award lecture was based on an article that has since been published in Applied Psychology: An International Review (1998, 47: 5–28).

References

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