John Paul Lederach

Who is John Paul Lederach?

John Paul Lederach is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, and concurrently Distinguished Scholar at Eastern Mennonite University. He has written widely on conflict resolution and mediation. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado and has been at Eastern Mennonite University since 1990.

Dr. Lederach's theories of elicitive methods of conflict resolution have been influential in the fields of political science, peace studies, international relations and conflict transformation. His approach is elicitive approaches to conflict intervention which he calls Conflict Transformation. His works have been published widely in English and Spanish.

His academic work comes laden with examples from his experience in the field as a mediator, negotiator, peacebuilding practitioner, trainer and consultant. At international level, this has involved input into peace processes in, for example, Somalia, Northern Ireland, Nicaragua, Colombia and Nepal. Within communities, his work has often been at the level of reconciliation within church and family.

Dr. Lederach is a committed Mennonite Christian, and as he explains in his 1999 book The Journey Toward Reconciliation, his Christian faith has impacted both his thinking and application of non-violent solutions to conflict. In 2000, he received the Community of Christ International Peace Award.