Mediation and Conflict Management Services

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Articles on Conflict Resolution by Robert Benjamin

Robert Benjamin is widely recognized as one of the mediation field’s most original and provocative thinkers. With a career spanning over four decades, he has blended deep practical experience with incisive scholarship, challenging conventional assumptions about conflict, negotiation, and human behavior. His writings explore the messy realities of decision-making, the evolutionary roots of negotiation, and the essential paradoxes at the heart of mediation practice. Drawing from neuroscience, history, art, and even animal behavior, Benjamin’s articles invite mediators, negotiators, and conflict professionals to think more critically, creatively, and strategically about their work. Below is a collection of his influential essays and reflections.

Articles

  • "Effective Negotiation and Mediation of Conflict: Applied Theory, Forms and Practice Handbook," Mediation and Conflict Management Services, 10th Edition, 2007
  • "The Physics of Mediation: The Reflections of Scientific Theory in Professional Mediation Practice." Mediation Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2, Winter, 1990. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "The Use of Mediative Strategies in Traditional Legal Practice," The Family Law Reporter, The Journal of The Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1997
  • "Mediative Strategies in the Management of Child Sexual Abuse Matters," Family and Conciliation Courts Review, July 1991. Sage Publications, Newburg Park, CA, Third Annual Meyer Elkin Essay Award winner
  • "Managing the Natural Energy of Conflict: Mediators, Tricksters and the Constructive Uses of Deception,"  Bringing Peace Into The Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution, Editors D. Bowling, D. Hoffman, 2003, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "Negotiation and Evil: Religious and Moral Resistance to the Settlement of Conflict." Mediation Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3, Spring 1998. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "Strategies for Managing Impasse," Divorce and Family Mediation, Editors: J. Folberg, A. Milne, P. Salem, Guilford Publications, Inc., 2004
  • "The Beauty of Conflict: Art Lessons, Lateral Thinking and Creative Problem Solving,"  Wisconsin Association of Mediators Journal, 2007, Chip Nichols Essay Award winner
  • "The Strategic Use of Art in Problem Solving," The Creative Problem Solver's Handbook for Negotiators and Mediators, Vol. 1, Editor John W. Cooley, American Bar Association, 2005 (available on the 'The Beauty of Conflict' CD Rom, see
     
  • "The Natural History of Negotiation and Mediation: The Evolution of Negotiative Behavior and Rituals," 2012 (see Articles) 
     

Selected Publications and Book Contributions

  • "Effective Negotiation and Mediation of Conflict: Applied Theory, Forms and Practice Handbook," Mediation and Conflict Management Services, 10th Edition, 2007
  • "The Physics of Mediation: The Reflections of Scientific Theory in Professional Mediation Practice." Mediation Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 2, Winter, 1990. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "The Use of Mediative Strategies in Traditional Legal Practice," The Family Law Reporter, The Journal of The Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1997
  • "Mediative Strategies in the Management of Child Sexual Abuse Matters," Family and Conciliation Courts Review, July 1991. Sage Publications, Newburg Park, CA, Third Annual Meyer Elkin Essay Award winner
  • "Managing the Natural Energy of Conflict: Mediators, Tricksters and the Constructive Uses of Deception," Bringing Peace Into The Room, Editors D. Bowling, D. Hoffman, 2003, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "Negotiation and Evil: Religious and Moral Resistance to the Settlement of Conflict." Mediation Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 3, Spring 1998. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA
  • "Strategies for Managing Impasse," Divorce and Family Mediation, Editors: J. Folberg, A. Milne, P. Salem, Guilford Publications, Inc., 2004
  • "The Beauty of Conflict: Art Lessons, Lateral Thinking and Creative Problem Solving," Wisconsin Association of Mediators Journal, 2007, Chip Nichols Essay Award winner