When Should I Be in the Middle? I’ve Looked at Life from Both Sides Now

This autobiographical essay outlines both a personal origin story of entrance into the field of conflict resolution and mediation and some of the origin issues of the field itself. From political commitments to social justice, to individual, commercial, familial, national, political and international conflict, when is mediation appropriate and when not? What issues in conflict resolution should be handled in authoritative public fora and when does it make more sense to allow creative party tailoring of relationship and substantive problem solving? What are some of the challenges as this field is in the “middle” of its own development, from highly interpersonal and human understanding in conflict resolution processes, with and without and law, to electronic, artificial and algorithmic and more impersonal processes. Ultimately, what are the purposes of different forms of conflict resolution? How should newcomers to the field conceive of their purposes?