ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some important new books chronicle the dynamic development of the theory and practice of mediation in the United States. It presents typically mediative intervention — an attempt to reconcile, from competing views of mediation, the disparate perspectives that are presented. The chapter suggests that, with more modest claims, mediation still offers the possibility of more than individual conflict resolution. Mediation does represent a possibility for transformative and democratic process. Mediation, like any process, can be turned opportunistically to serve problematic and corrupt ends. Much of the literature on international mediation has focused on whether the independent "power" of the third-party intervenor is an essential element of successful dispute resolution. William Hobgood is best for placing the work of mediation in a broader context and explaining the forces that affect mediation both internally and from such external forces as the realities of labor-management relations and broader industrial and organizational policy.
