Andrew Floyer Acland

Andrew Floyer Acland's career began when he landed a job as research assistant to one of Margaret Thatcher's private foreign affairs advisers. He specialised in arms control and East-West relations, having read Russian at university, and became fascinated by how people negotiate.

He subsequently joined the staff of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, as a researcher and speech writer, and it was while at Lambeth Palace that he first became involved in third party mediation, helping Terry Waite, the Archbishop's envoy, to secure the release of British hostages from the regime of Colonel Gadhafi in Libya. He later worked for a Swiss mediating body in a number of frontline situations, particularly in South and Southern Africa.

Andrew's first book, A Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense: Managing Conflict through Mediation (Hutchinson Business Books 1990), was the first book published in the United Kingdom about Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). This was followed by Resolving Disputes Without Going to Court (Century 1995) which looked at ADR more from a consumer perspective, and Perfect People Skills (Random House Business 1997 and 2003).

More recent is The Choreography of Resolution: Conflict, Movement and Neuroscience (American Bar Association 2013), a co-edited collection of essays about what mediators can learn from dancers and other artists about non-verbal behaviour.

In 2022 Andrew gained a PhD and his dissertation - edited to be accessible - will be published in Autumn 2023 as Religious Hatred and Human Conflict: Psychodynamic Approaches to Insight and Intervention.