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Abstract
This article presents an account of Morton Deutsch's influence on the study of 3rd-party conflict mediation. Written in the spirit of a personal memoir, it emphasizes how Deutsch's theoretical interests, as well as his personal approach to research and research collaboration, have influenced the empirical study of mediation. On the personal side, the key elements have been his enthusiasm for "real world" problems, his disinclination to see theory and practice as 2 separate realms, his methodological pluralism, and his egalitarian approach to research collaboration. His conceptual influence on mediation research is traceable to his focus on identifying the conditions that give rise to constructive, rather than destructive, processes of conflict resolution; his curiosity about what mediators do to constructively manage conflict; and his interest in the intersection between the individual—in this case the mediating individual—and the social structure.