Portland State University (PSU) believe that even the world’s most destructive conflicts can be resolved to create a more peaceful future. With a bachelor’s degree in conflict resolution from PSU, students will be able to participate and contribute to this important work locally and globally.

As a conflict resolution major, students will learn to analyze conflict, uncovering the underpinnings of conflict dynamics in a wide variety of settings and scales. Students will develop perspectives and gain skills to defuse and deescalate destructive conflicts that arise among individuals, groups and countries.

The courses in the program encompass the practical and theoretical bases of mediation, negotiation and an array of peace-enhancing perspectives and strategies. The program includes research, theory, and competency-based education focusing on building the necessary personal, social and institutional conditions necessary for positive peace, conflict transformation (from destructive to constructive), and universal respect for context-sensitive human rights. Students are encouraged to pursue their own particular interests in the study of conflict resolution.