June 14, 2011

The U.S. Institute of Peace was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacob Bercovitch on Friday, June 10, 2011, after a long and brave struggle with cancer. Bercovitch was a professor of International Relations at the University in Canterbury, New Zealand and author and editor of more than 10 books on international relations and conflict mediation.

In 2002, Bercovitch was a Jennings Randolph senior fellow at USIP.  Current Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow Valerie Rosoux remembers Jacob as a great mentor for young scholars. “His way of questioning political interactions between people and between states will remain insightful and stimulating. Beyond his research, his whole personality was inspiring. Warm and deeply humane, Jacob had an incomparable sense of humor. He incarnated in many ways the role of mediator to which he devoted his professional career.”

Pamela Aall, senior vice president and provost of the USIP Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, recalls, “Jacob is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on international mediation and his contributions to the field and USIP are extremely important.”

Bercovitch was finishing a book for USIP Press on the theory and practice of international mediation, which the Institute hopes to publish in 2012. The Institute extends its sincere condolences to his wife Gillian and his two daughters Liora and Daniella.