History
Conflict and Peace Studies at Columbia University
The field of conflict resolution has a rich 75 year-old history of scholarship supported by rigorous, systematic research. It first emerged as a mature discipline after World War II, led by the seminal works of William James, Kurt Lewin, Mary Parker Follett, Anatole Rappaport, Kenneth Boulding and Morton Deutsch. Deutsch came to Columbia University in 1970, where he conducted most of his groundbreaking research on constructive conflict and justice, and where in 1986 he founded The International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR), an innovative center committed to developing knowledge and practice to promote constructive conflict resolution, effective cooperation, and social justice. Deutsch, one of the 
world’s most eminent psychologists and peace scholars, trained several generations of the field’s most productive and influential academic leaders in conflict resolution including David Johnson, Roy Lewicki, Babara Bunker, Ken Kressel, Jeff Rubin, Michele Fine, Susan Opotow and Peter Coleman. In addition, Columbia has been home to many other outstanding peace and conflict scholars and practitioners working in various disciplines, such as Robert Krause, Robert Jervis, Betty Reardon, Andrea Bartoli, Joel Brockner, Aldo Civico, Elizabeth Lindenmayer, Beth Fisher-Yoshida and many others. As a result, Columbia has grown to become a central hub of activity for conflict resolution theory, research, education and practice.
Columbia University’s rich tradition of theory, research, practice and education in conflict resolution includes many AC4 affiliates and members. As our world becomes increasingly complex and the nature of the challenges we face become more intractable, it has become clear that our capacities to work creatively across disciplines is paramount. However, today, there is very little collaborative interdisciplinary work being conducted in the areas of peace, conflict, violence and sustainability.
The study of perplexing problems such as climate change, protracted conflict and sustainable peace require an approach to research that moves beyond traditionally siloed disciplines, that brings them together in a manner that reflects the complexity of the problems we seek to understand and rectify. To respond to this need, Dr. Peter T. Coleman, Dr. Beth Fisher-Yoshida and Dr. Andrea Bartoli (formerly of CICR), formally launched The Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4) and the Masters of Science Program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia’s School of Continuing Education.
Today, AC4 is housed at The Earth Institute at Columbia University, a multidisciplinary research institute aimed at addressing complex global problems. AC4’s focus on the study of peace, conflict, violence and sustainability falls solidly within the central concerns and objectives of the institute. The consortium seeks to act as a coordinating agent to facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration between existing institutes, centers, scholars, and practitioners at Columbia University. The primary objective of AC4 is to bring people and institutions from a variety of disciplines together to tackle complex problems with increasingly integrated (and interdisciplinary) understandings, methodologies, and solutions.