Mediation may be defined as a process in which disputants attempt to resolve their differences with the assistance of an acceptable third party.

The mediator’s objectives are typically to help the parties search for a mutually acceptable solution to their conflict and to counter tendencies toward competitive win-lose strategies and objectives.

Although mediation is a pervasive and fundamental human activity—try to imagine family life devoid of parents’ interceding in their children’s squabbles— in the last two decades formal mediation has begun to play a role at all levels of society and in virtually every significant area of social conflict. Some of the most prominent examples are divorce mediation, peer mediation in the schools, community mediation, victim-offender mediation (to help deal with the psy­chological and practical aftermath of property crimes and minor assaults), medi­ation of public resource disputes, judicial mediation, mediation of disputes within organizations, and the increasing visibility for mediation in international conflicts between and within nations. Within the United States, the federal and state governments have become active sponsors of mediation programs, rang­ing from personnel and employment dispute to public conflicts in health care, economic development, governance, and the environment. Federal sponsorship of mediation and related programs has been characterized as “one of the most significant movements in U.S. law in the latter half of the 20th century” with

“profound effects on the way the federal government handles conflict” (Nabatchi, forthcoming).