Peter T. Coleman
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Research

Research & ideas.

For over 30 years, he has studied, educated, practiced, and innovated around matters related to peace, conflict, and justice through four interconnected tracks of work.
Four tracks of work

The questions driving the work.

01

Intractable Conflict.

Why do some conflicts resist every attempt at resolution — and what can complexity science reveal about how to shift them?

A small set of conflicts—"the five percent"—resist all standard solutions because they take on a life of their own, pulling people back into the same destructive patterns.

These conflicts work like gravity wells: the whole system keeps sliding back to the same hostile place no matter how reasonably you address the original issue.

Real change comes from reshaping the bigger picture—weakening what locks people in conflict and building new conditions for peace—not from fixing surface disagreements.

— Key outputs
02

Toxic Polarization.

Evidence-based strategies for how deeply divided societies can — and do — find the way out.

Political division has become a society-wide version of an intractable conflict, so it can't be fixed by simply giving people better facts or arguments.

The way out is to change the system around us—healthier news habits, cross-divide relationships, and more intellectual humility—rather than trying to win the argument.

These efforts measurably work: structured programs and "detox" practices reduce hostility and help people engage better across political and racial divides.

— Key outputs
03

Conflict Intelligence.

A new scientific paradigm for engaging conflict optimally — moving beyond micro, short-term, linear models.

There's no single right way to handle conflict; the skill is reading each situation and adapting your approach to fit it.

This adaptive ability can be measured and taught, and people who use it get better results than those who rely on one fixed style.

In today's turbulent world, the best leaders combine flexibility with a feel for the bigger dynamics at play—what makes them "conflict-intelligent."

— Key outputs
04

Sustainable Peace.

What can the world's most peaceful societies teach us about building and sustaining peace?

Lasting peace is an active, positive condition, not just the absence of war.

Peaceful societies share recurring ingredients—cooperation, shared identity, and supportive norms—that can be mapped, modeled, and even detected in a country's media language.

Because peace works as a connected system, it can be deliberately built and strengthened by targeting the right leverage points.

— Key outputs
Labs & Centers

Where the work happens.

Two centers anchor the research portfolio — bridging the science-practice nexus in conflict resolution and the transdisciplinary study of sustainable peace.

MD-ICCCR

Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation & Conflict Resolution.

Founded 1998 · Teachers College

Focused on the science-practice nexus in conflict resolution. Home of the doctoral program, the Science-Practice Blog, and decades of applied research in mediation, negotiation, and constructive controversy.

Visit ICCCR
AC4

Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict & Complexity.

Founded 2008 · The Climate School

Transdisciplinary research on sustainably peaceful societies. Home of the Women, Peace and Security program, co-founded with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee.

Visit AC4
Selected publications

A curated selection of peer-reviewed work.

For a complete list of 100+ papers, see the full CV. Organized by research theme below.

100+peer-reviewed papers
9,343citations
H-48h-index
89i10-index
— 01 Intractable Conflict
  1. Vallacher, R., Coleman, P. T., Nowak, A., Bui-Wrzosinska, L. (2010). Rethinking intractable conflict: The perspective of dynamical systems. American Psychologist, 65 (4), 262-278.
  2. Coleman, P. T. (2011). The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to (Seemingly) Impossible Conflicts. New York: Public Affairs, Perseus Books. https://www.fivepercentbook.com/
  3. Coleman, P. T., Vallacher, R., Nowak, A., & Bui-Wrzosinska, L. (2007). Intractable conflict as an attractor: Presenting a dynamical model of conflict, escalation, and intractability. American Behavioral Scientist, 50(11), 1454-1475.
  4. Kugler, K. and Coleman, P. T. (2020). Get Complicated: The Effects of Complexity on Conversations over Potentially Intractable Moral Conflicts. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. 10.1111/ncmr.12192.
— 02 Dynamical Systems
  1. Vallacher, R., Coleman, P. T., Nowak, A., Bui-Wrzosinska, L., Kugler, K., Bartoli, A., & Liebovitch, L. (2013). Attracted to Conflict: Dynamic Foundations of Malignant Social Relations. Springer. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642352799
  2. Liebovitch, L. S., Vallacher, R., Nowak, A., Bui-Wrzosinska, and Coleman, Peter, T. (2008). Dynamics of two-actor cooperation-competition conflict models. Physica A.
  3. Liebovitch, L., Coleman, P. T., and Fisher, J. (2019). Approaches to Understanding Sustainable Peace: Qualitative Causal Loop Diagrams and Quantitative Mathematical Models. American Behavioral Scientist. 000276421985961. 10.1177/0002764219859618.
— 03 Sustainable Peace
  1. Fry, D. P., Souillac, G., Liebovitch, L. S., Coleman, P. T., Agan, K., Nicholson-Cox, E., Mason, D., Gomez, F. P., Strauss, S. (2021). Societies within peace systems avoid war and build positive intergroup relationships. Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Communications 8, 17. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00692-8 .
  2. Coleman, P. T. & Deutsch, M. (Eds., 2012). The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace. Springer Books. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9781461435549
  3. Coleman, P.T., Fisher, J., Fry, D.P., Liebovitch, L. Chen-Carrel, A., Souillac, G. (2021). How to Live in Peace? Mapping the Science of Sustaining Peace: A Progress Report. American Psychologist, 76(7), 1113-1127. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000745
— 04 Conflict Intelligence
  1. Coleman, P. T. and Ferguson, R. (2014). Making Conflict Work: Harnessing the Power of Disagreement. New York: Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt. http://www.makingconflictwork.com/
  2. Coleman, P. T., Kugler, K. G., and Chatman, L. (2017). Adaptive mediation: An evidence-based contingency approach to mediating conflict. International Journal of Conflict Management, 28(3), 383-406.
  3. Coleman, P. T., Coon, D., Kim, R., Chung, C., Regan, B., Anderson. R., & Bass, B. (2017). Promoting constructive multicultural attractors: Fostering unity and fairness from diversity and conflict. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(2), 180-211. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-21757-004
  4. Coleman, P. T. & Ferguson, R. (2016). What to do if your boss asks you to break the rules. Harvard Business Review, January 7, 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-to-do-if-your-boss-asks-you-to-break-the-rules
Download Full CV Google Scholar profile

Interested in collaboration, fellowships, or a research partnership?