Jonathan W. Reitman
Articles and Video:Maine people have a time-honored tradition of gathering to talk about community concerns— whether at town meeting, in the stands at the high school football game, or around the coffee pot at the store “in town.” In recent years, Maine policymakers have tapped this custom by adopting a collaborative approach to tackle a number of complex public issues. Bumps In The Road Of Maine’s New Rule Of Evidence 514 For the past twenty years of my full-time ADR practice, I have confidently said to the parties in mediation something like “Nothing that you say here can be used against you, even if we don’t resolve the dispute today in mediation.” 2 Comments Are Mediators Damage Control Experts?: A Case Study of Community Mediation I never thought of myself as a “damage control expert.” That’s not a phrase I’ve ever used in the ADR law school courses or 40-hour mediation courses I have taught over the years. And yet, if I can prevent parties from being “crushed by the weight of their conflict,” perhaps a damage control expert is precisely what I am. 1 Comment Mediator Fatigue: The Traumatic Effect Of What We Hear For the past 17 years I have worked and trained in international conflict situations, with workshop participants from South Africa, Bosnia, Serbia, Syria, Palestine, Israel, the Philippines, and Nepal, among other countries. So I am no stranger to chronic, seemingly intractable conflicts and the deep wounds and vulnerabilities they often produce, or to the strident, angry rhetoric that is often expressed in conflict resolution trainings. It gets hot in the room. That’s a given, and I have sometimes found it difficult to return from these foreign venues, to reintegrate into my domestic practice and life. From Jonathan Reitman I leave my Mediate.com newsletter in my email inbox until I have time to review the articles carefully, because I almost always find something relevant to my practice, and am often moved to correspond with the authors, exploring the topics in more depth. After 20 years as a full-time ADR practitioner, I have found nothing to compare with this service. As an ADR trainer, I always refer my students to the site as a basic research tool. Congratulations on the 200th issue. May you have another 200! Does Israel Need A National Program of Healing and Reconciliation? The recent disengagement from Gaza was traumatic for Israeli society. It deepend divisions in a society already deeply polarized. It served to escalate the harshness of public discourse in a country already riven by derisive rhetoric. This article examines those divisions and proposes a National Program of Healing and Reconciliation for Israel, which just might have a dramatic impact on Palestinian society as well. 1 Comment One Key to Middle East Peace: How a Dispute Resolution System Could Handle Conflicts Arising from Dismantlement of Settlements in West Bank & Gaza Every Middle East observer notes that a successful settlement relocation process is one of the keys to transforming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thus it seems wise to anticipate how our Dispute Resolution system design principles might apply to these conflicts. 3 Comments The Allagash: A Case Study of a Successful Environmental Mediation What are the elements which make possible the successful mediation of an environmental dispute? In this article, Jonathan Reitman analyzes what conditions led to the resolution of a 33-year-old controversy about the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine. The polarized dispute involved wilderness canoeists, sportsmen, environmental organizations, local residents and state and federal regulators. Their recent negotiated agreement was hailed as "comprehensive and visionary." The mediator who facilitated the negotiations reflects on lessons learned. 6 Comments The Mediation Field Guide: Transcending Litigation and Resolving Conflicts in Your Business or Organization Book Review: by Jonathan Reitman Barbara Ashley Phillips does not lack courage. And in her important new book, The Mediation Field Guide (Jossey-Bass, 2001), she often says the difficult things and tackles the controversial subjects in our field, apparently without regard to what people may think. 2 Comments  |
