Research

Peter T. Coleman is a renowned expert on addressing seemingly impossible conflicts of all types (from families to companies to communities to nations) and in working strategically towards constructive conflict resolution and sustainable peace. He began his professional career in the 1980s as a professional actor in New York working in television, theater and film. When he left the spotlight to serve as a mental health counselor for violent inner-city youth, Coleman found his true calling as an expert in conflict resolution, even though he says that, at that point, "I had no training in the area. I was just working from my gut."

Eventually Coleman did train as a community mediator for the New York State Criminal Court system, and that became the springboard to a doctorate in social and organizational psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. Today, in addition to his faculty duties as associate professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, he works as the director of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College, and the Advanced Consortium of Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) at the Earth Institute at Columbia.

Coleman writes that although intractable conflicts are only about five percent of the world's conflicts, they undermine the security and well-being of societies everywhere. For the past several years, Coleman has been the lead investigator on "Modeling the Fundamental Dynamics of Intractable Conflict," a multidisciplinary project funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation that applies the principles and methods of complexity science to understand what Coleman calls "the five percent problem." According to Dr. Coleman, to contend with this destructive species of conflict we must understand the invisible dynamics at work. Coleman has extensively researched the essence of conflict in his "Intractable Conflict Lab," the first research facility devoted to the study of polarizing conversations and seemingly unresolveable disagreements. Informed by lessons drawn from practical experience, advances in complexity theory, and the psychological and social currents that drive conflicts both international and domestic, Coleman offers innovative new strategies for dealing with disputes of all types, ranging from abortion debates to the enmity between Israelis and Palestinians.

Coleman joined the Columbia faculty at Teachers College in 1997 and the Earth Institute faculty in 2009. "Our work at the ICCCR is focused on conducting leading-edge research on conflict and peace and then translating it in useful ways for the general public. The Earth Institute is trying to affect significant change in some very dire and complex social systems, and many of them are, in fact, in the middle of conflict zones." Coleman sees his Earth Institute affiliation as a way to begin to "reorient our work from problems to solutions" and "marshal efforts related to sustainable peace."

Coleman holds a Ph.D. in social and organizational psychology from Columbia University, and a B.A. in communications from the University of Iowa. He is also on the boards of APA Division 48 and of the International Association of Conflict Management and is a research affiliate of the International Center for Complexity and Conflict (ICCC) at The Warsaw School for Social Psychology in Warsaw, Poland. In 2003, he became the first recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association, Division 48: Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence. Coleman co-edits The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice (2000; 2nd edition 2006), and has authored over 70 journal articles and chapters. He is also a New York State-certified mediator and experienced consultant. His latest book, The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts, is published by Public Affairs and was released in May, 2011. He is currently working on his next book, Smart Power: How Adaptive Leaders Navigate Conflict to Succeed.

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