IJAHP News and Events: Zoffer/Pitt creates new IC4CR center to utilize AHP in resolving 

international conflicts 

 

 International Journal of the 
Analytic Hierarchy Process 

151 Vol. 11 Issue 1 2019 

ISSN 1936-6744 
https://doi.org/10.13033/ijahp.v11i1.654 

 

Pitt Creates New IC4CR Center to Utilize AHP in Resolving 

International Conflicts 

 

Jerry Zoffer 

Professor and Dean Emeritus 

Katz Graduate School of Business 

University of Pittsburgh 

Pittsburgh, PA, USA 

zoffer@katz.pitt.edu 

 

 

The current failure to resolve conflicts worldwide highlights the need for a different 

approach to conflict resolution. A proposal by University of Pittsburgh professors Luis 

Vargas and Jerry Zoffer to create a new International Center for Conflict Resolution 

(IC4CR) was funded by University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and will 

be housed in the Katz Graduate School of Business. The mission of IC4CR is to provide 

decision makers with an in-depth understanding of the negotiating positions of all parties 

and recommend implementation guidelines, based on preferences and priorities, to 

facilitate resolution of otherwise intractable conflicts. 

 

The Center will implement this mission by conducting studies of diplomatic and 

corporate conflicts using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) developed by the late 

University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor Thomas L. Saaty. This will require 

building tradeoff models by eliciting preferences and priorities through the AHP to create 

a negotiation model which is measurement-based. 

 

Using the priorities derived from the preferences will allow the decision makers to 

compute gain/loss ratios of tradeoffs from each party’s perspective. They will be able to 

identify win-win, non-zero-sum equitable tradeoffs that both parties can claim as a win 

and permit a road map to facilitate implementing a feasible solution.  

 

IC4CR is unique because the use of the AHP helps reduce uncertainty between and 

among the parties, lessens emotion in the negotiations, and permits a more accurate 

assessment of the relative value that each side attaches to an issue. 

 

IC4CR has already applied this approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the 

complexities of this conflict will require additional work, much progress has been made 

in identifying possible tradeoffs which could lead to a solution.  Another project being 

developed in the city of Pittsburgh is how to reconcile, to the community’s and the police 

department’s benefit, policing and community interests.  Another major proposal which 

may be financed by the federal government is to focus on the seemingly intractable issue 

of how to improve the recidivism rate and develop programs which will encourage those 

released from prison to begin more productive lives.