AC4 Hosts Distinguished Conflict Scholar Louis Kriesberg

On Monday, April 13, 2015 AC⁴ and the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program (NECR) hosted Dr. Louis Kriesberg at Columbia University. Dr. Kriesberg is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies, and founding director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC) at Syracuse University.

At Columbia University he spoke about his latest book Realizing Peace: A Constructive Conflict Approach offering an account from his book where he examined American involvement in foreign conflicts. The focus of the talk was an analysis of the major foreign conflict episodes in which the United States has been involved since the onset of the Cold War. He spoke about the times when the involvement in foreign conflicts has been relatively effective and beneficial and when it has not. In doing so he offered an explanation when the US took constructive approaches to conflict and whether the tactics used yielded better consequences than more traditional coercive approaches.

Following Dr. Kriesberg’s presentation a number of thought provoking questions emerged by the attendees contributing to a lively discussion on the topic.

To learn more about Dr. Kriesberg’s book and work, listen to the podcast of his conversation with Meredith Smith here

This interview was featured on WKCR (89.9FM) for the AC⁴ radio show, Conversations from the Leading Edge.