About the Program

PICAR grew out of the efforts of Harvard University Professor Herbert Kelman and his associates, starting in the 1970s, to bring together politically active and influential Israelis and Palestinians for direct communication in interactive problem-solving workshops. PICAR associates continue to work on the Middle East as well as other ethnic conflicts such as those in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Cyprus, and urban settings within the United States.

About the Director

Herbert C. Kelman is Richard Clarke Cabot Research Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University's Department of Psychology and Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Yale University in 1951. He is past president of the International Studies Association, the International Society of Political Psychology, the Interamerican Society of Psychology, and several other professional associations. He is recipient of many awards, including the Socio-Psychological Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1956), the Kurt Lewin Memorial award (1973), the American Psychological Associations Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest (1981), the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order (1997), and the Austrian Medal of Honor for Science and Art First Class (1998). His major publications include International Behavior: A Social-Psychological Analysis (editor; 1965), A Time to Speak: On Human Values and Social Research (1968), and Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility (with V. Lee Hamilton; 1989). He has been engaged for many years in the development of interactive problem solving, an unofficial third party approach to the resolution of international and intercommunal conflicts, and in its application to the Arab-Israeli conflict, with special emphasis on its Israeli-Palestinian component.