by Harold H. Saunders

About the author: Harold H. Saunders is the director of international affairs at the Kettering Foundation, a public policy research organization in Washington, D.C. Saunders served as deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state under Henry Kissinger, assisting in Middle East peace negotiations.

Many nongovernmental organizations, from elementary and secondary schools through labor organizations and environmental groups, are creating institutions to teach the philosophy, skills, and techniques of negotiation and mediation in a wide range of circumstances. They have done so on the theory that teaching individuals and groups to think of resolving differences by discussion rather than by force opens the door to a different way of behaving in situations of impending conflict. In some instances, conciliation commissions are being established involving individuals with such training in formally established social institutions...