Tatsushi Arai
PhD, George Mason University
MA, Monterey Institute of International Studies
BA, Waseda University, Japan
Associate Professor, Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation
Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management
Dr. Tatsushi Arai is an associate professor of peacebuilding and conflict transformation at SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont and a visiting scholar at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, where he earned his doctorate in 2005. Previously, Dr. Arai taught international relations at the National University of Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.
As a trainer, mediator, and dialogue facilitator, Dr. Arai has led a number of conflict resolution workshops for diplomats, military and peace operations professionals, civil society and religious leaders, and representatives of international organizations from around the world, especially in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, the African Great Lakes, and North America.
Dr. Arai’s scholarship explores the link between theory and practice. His recent publications include “Rebuilding Pakistan in the Aftermath of the Floods: Disaster Relief as Conflict Prevention” in the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development (2012), “Development Sensitivity for Reconciliation: Lessons Learned from Rwanda” in Conflict Trends (2012), and “Activating Peace Potential in Youth-Led Civil Society Dialogues Across the Taiwan Strait” in New Paradigms of Peace Research: The Asia-Pacific Context (2013). His book Creativity and Conflict Resolution: Alternative Pathways to Peace (2012, Routledge) examines the patterns of group-based creativity based on a comparative analysis of seventeen cases.
Dr. Arai’s current research and applied practice focus on the East China Sea, Syria, and Afghan-Pakistan-US relations among other contexts. His inquiry seeks to conceptualize functional coexistence — a sustained, evolving relationship between adversarial parties that actively deny or distrust one another yet still choose not to use force to settle their differences.
Dr. Arai is a Japanese citizen and currently lives in Massachusetts with his tri-national family.
