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Richard Rubenstein

Richard Rubenstein
University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs
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J.D., Harvard Law School, 1963
Litt.D. (honoris causa), University of Malta, 2016
M.A., Oxford University, 1961
Honours School of Jurisprudence (Rhodes Scholar)
B.A., Harvard College, 1959
Magna Cum Laude in History and Literature

Biography

Richard E. Rubenstein is University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University, holding degrees from Harvard College, Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar), Harvard Law School, and the University of Malta. A former lawyer, political scientist, and director of S-CAR, he is the author of nine books about various types of violent social conflict and the possibilities of resolving them nonviolently. His most recent book is Resolving Structural Conflicts: Violent Systems and How They Can Be Transformed (Routledge, 2017). Rubenstein teaches grad and undergrad courses on conflict theory and speaks publicly on issues of peace and social justice. He blogs at www.rich-rubenstein.com.



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Awards and Honors
Faculty Member of the Year for 2017
Dr. Rubenstein has been named Faculty Member of the Year for 2017 by the George Mason University Alumni Association.
Honorary Degree- Doctor of Literature
On December 2, the University of Malta awarded Dr. Rubenstein the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature at a ceremony attended by the Rector of the University at a ceremony held at the Church of...
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Titlesort icon Semester
The purpose of the course is to develop our understanding of violent structural conflicts and the possible methods of...
Explores how people translate underlying grievances into collective action. Examines how groups organize, frame, and...
Explores role of religious ideas, practices, and organizations in conflict, war, peace making, and conflict...
Topics vary; they are announced each academic year.
Taken in last semester of master’s student course work. Assists in developing students’ own theories of conflict and conflict...
Examines major theories of conflict causation and motivation. Emphasizes need for theories to inform processes of conflict resolution. Weaves...
This foundation course is 6 credits and has two classes a week.Introduces field of conflict analysis and resolution. Examines definitions...
Capstone course in which students reflect on what they have learned, integrating knowledge from course work and...
Examines causes, sources, and origins of  group violence with particular attention to group violence of...
Terrorism is a significant factor in conflict worldwide, yet the underlying causes and conditions that give rise to terrorist activity are often...
Covers conflict at macro level, introducing theories of international and global violence and conflict, drawing from...
Covers conflict at mezzo level, introducing theories of social harmony and conflict, drawing on sociology, social...
Covers deeply rooted, intractable, or protracted social conflicts around core issues of identity, including race,...
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Title Published Date
January 27, 2017
This book analyses how certain types of social systems generate violent conflict and discusses how these systems can be transformed in order to create the conditions for positive peace.Resolving Structural Conflicts addresses a key issue in the field of conflict...
Category: Book
April 15, 2016
The notion of an Arab pursuit of Kantian freedom and linkage between Kant’s practical reason and Averroes’s tanwiri reason in the rationalization of politics, public sphere, morality, and religion can be better informed by deconstructing the Western...
Category: Book Chapter
May 08, 2012
Richard Rubenstein explores both the rhetoric that sells war to the public and the underlying cultural and social factors that make that sales pitch so effective. Through analysis of discourses that have led to wars, the author offers a new way to think about the...
Category: Book Chapter
March 26, 2012
In Chapter 2 “The role of civilians in American war ideology,” Richard Rubenstein examines the reasons why Americans go to war in the past two centuries. He shows how past American military campaigns have been shaped by normative beliefs regarding why...
Category: Book Chapter
September 28, 2010
What makes Americans fight? Why do the professed first citizen of the free world so often accept armed conflict as a political measure, and how do we justify those choices to ourselves? When is war the right decision?From the American Revolution to the end of...
Category: Book
June 25, 2009
Popular justifications for war in the USA have long been based on normative values embodied in America's civil religion, including a sacred right of self-defense. Over time, these justificatory rationales have been adapted and expanded to generate public...
Category: Journal Article
June 25, 2009
This special issue of Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict (DAC) grew out of a conference convened in 2005 at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) of George Mason University to celebrate Professor Christopher Mitchell’s imminent elevation to...
Category: Journal Article
September 09, 2008
Category: Book Chapter
September 01, 2008
Category: Book Chapter
September 01, 2008
Category: Book Chapter
November 13, 2006
In ancient Judea, Jeremiah and Isaiah advised kings and priests and watched the great armies of the ancient Near East sweep across the desert, threatening and overtaking their tiny country with its burgeoning faith. Across centuries a new view emerged based on...
Category: Book
September 20, 2004
Europe was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten, until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread like wildfire across...
Category: Book
August 13, 2003
Category: Book Chapter
August 01, 2003
Category: Book Chapter
July 10, 2000
The story of Jesus is well known, as is the story of Christian persecutions during the Roman Empire. The history of fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots within the Christian community as it was coming into being, however, is a side of ancient history...
Category: Book
January 01, 1996
The two public lectures contained in this working paper were presented by Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution faculty member Richard E. Rubenstein at the University of Malta. "Conflict Resolution and Political Power" was presented in Valletta...
Category: Papers & Reports
September 22, 1994
Samuel Huntington's theory on how to craft a new paradigm capable of revealing the principal sources of conflict and collaboration in a rapidly changing international system is criticized. It is argued that destructive conflict between identity groups can be...
Category: Journal Article
June 01, 1994
Readers opening the New York Times on the morning of February 7, 1909, saw the headline: Police and Reds Both Hunt Azeff. "Where is Azeff?" the report began. "Who will get to him first? Who will be his executioner, the Russian police or the...
Category: Book
January 01, 1994
What is "the news" about? International conflicts and communal wars. Religious upheavals and racial disorders. Political debates and family disputes. Arrests, shootouts, strikes, layoffs, feuds, fistfights...and lawsuits (always lawsuits). From page one...
Category: Papers & Reports
April 01, 1993
Immediately following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops in August 1990, many scholars and practitioners in the field of conflict resolution went on record opposing military action by United States or United Nations forces to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi...
Category: Papers & Reports
September 01, 1989
"Group Violence in America: The Fire Next Time?" is the second working paper of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.Both writings will come as a surprise to those who think of conflict resolution as being...
Category: Papers & Reports
September 01, 1988
In a calm, level-headed analysis, Rubenstein offers a powerful rebuttal to many assumptions about terrorism. He maintains that terrorist acts are often the responses of frustrated people to American-sponsored oppression that is intended to protect U.S. imperial...
Category: Book
January 25, 1988
Category: Journal Article
February 01, 1973
Category: Book
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November 01, 2002
On Sept. 24, Richard Rubenstein was interviewed by the editor of the National Journal on the meaning of the Sept. 11
Category: Newsletter Article

March 01, 1997
We have all read articles that mark a certain passage of time since an institution's founding which trumpet its
Category: Newsletter Article

November 01, 1995
By Richard E. RubensteinThe criminal trial has long been America's favorite form of popular drama. In each era, key
Category: Newsletter Article

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This dissertation explores James H. Laue’s approach to conflict resolution by examining his applied theory of third-party intervention. A scholar/practitioner of both theory and practice from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, Laue’s contributions to building the field of conflict
December 02, 2008
Dissertation Committee: Richard Rubenstein, J.D., ICAR (Chair) Christopher R. Mitchell, Ph.D., ICAR Dean Pruitt, Ph.D. ICARContact: Erica Soren, [email protected]
November 25, 2008
The eruption of highly contagious, violent conflicts, including the August 2008 war in South Ossetia, necessitates urgency in monitoring events in post-Soviet Eurasia in terms of regional and international security as well as for conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy. Ukraine’s
November 21, 2008
The religion and science conflict over human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research carries high stakes:  should embryos be protected as potential human life or should they be studied as possible cures for debilitating diseases?  With the current technology, we cannot simultaneously
November 30, 2007
Participants:                                             Dr. Trita Parsi,
April 23, 2007
On the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, I participated in a debate at George Mason University with Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs Richard Rubenstein over the propriety of the invasion. This debate, hosted by the campus Objectivist Club, was remarkable in that rather than yell
April 21, 2007
Peace in the Margins:Identity Negotiation in Mixed-Tradition Marriages and Its Potential for Mitigating Inter-Community Conflicts in Northern Ireland
April 19, 2007
The role of religion in conflict and peace has been explored by many, but uncovering the direct role that religion plays has often been difficult to isolate. Many have turned to look at regions where religion has played a destructive role while others have examined the peaceful potential of
April 06, 2007
Language frames us, our world and where we are headed—by changing the frames we use we can contribute to changing our future. Press frames are constructed through the selection of certain pieces of information that can contribute to paradigms, our ways of thinking; and to worldviews,
November 21, 2006
This dissertation is an examination of terrorism and counterterrorism using the framework of conflict analysis and resolution.  We develop a definition and a typology of terrorism that is based on the primary motivators of terrorism.  We review of the causes of ethno-national
November 10, 2006
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Presentation to SALT advocates and Virginia legislators (RICHMOND ROUNG-UP FORUM) Dr. Richard Rubenstein of George Mason University on 03.22.2014 in Vienna, Virginia 
March 22, 2014
Some of the conflicts most difficult to resolve are those generated by failing or dysfunctional social and political systems. How can the systems that generate structural violence, crime, ethnic struggles, and war be changed to eliminate endemic violence? This brown bag discussion will function
April 09, 2013
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