Entrepreneurship at Mason

Entrepreneurship and the Institute for Conflict Anaylsis and Resolution (ICAR)

Entrepreneurs are people who bridge hitherto separate domains of resources, products, services or knowledge, and in doing so create innovation and foster change. Successful entrepreneurship adds value to a system, however value is defined.

In this broad sense of the term, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) has been an entrepreneurial leader in higher education and an advocate for positive social change since its inception in 1980. In 1982, ICAR (then the Center for Conflict Resolution) and George Mason University became the first institution of higher education in the world to offer a post-graduate degree, a Master of Science, in Conflict Resolution. In 1988 ICAR continued to pioneer by being the first institutions of higher education to offer the Ph.D degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Since that time ICAR faculty and graduates have literally helped to build and shape the academic field of Conflict Resolution, both in the United States and internationally.

Our Ph.D. graduates staff many of the newer programs in Conflict Resolution in colleges and universities, both in the United States and abroad. Together with ICAR’s internationally renowned faculty, their research and writing defines the frontiers of knowledge in the field as well as the syllabi and courses of study in Conflict Resolution programs around the world. ICAR has been named a Commonwealth of Virginia Center of Excellence, and enjoys a global reputation in the academic field it has helped to create. Our M.S. graduates are trained and educated to be effective and “reflective” practitioners of conflict resolution. ICAR alumni can be found working in all sectors of employment, from local and federal government agencies, to non-profits and NGOs, to corporations.

Many of our graduates have formed independent consulting firms to help clients deal with costly and unproductive conflict. In 2004 ICAR became a “full service” academic unit by initiating an undergraduate major and minor, and in 2006 launched its Certificate Program aimed at working professionals. ICAR specializes in the analysis of the most deeply rooted and seemingly intractable conflicts, those around issues of identity and deeply held values. Recognizing that conflict is part of all social life and inherent in all social relations, our aim is not to “suppress” it but to recognize its potential positive attributes, as a road to productive change, and to help individuals and groups avoid its nonproductive, even destructive, potentialities.