I. William Zartman

01/09/1932 - 07/28/2025

I. William Zartman, the author, teacher and international relations specialist who coined the concepts of Ripeness Theory and Mutually Hurting Stalemate, passed away on July 28, 2025 at the age of 93 at Adventist Medical Center in Silver Spring, MD. He was surrounded by his wife of 65 years, Marie-Daniele Zartman and his son, Alex.

Dr. William (Bill) Zartman was born in 1932 in Allentown PA. Dr. Zartman is the descendant of a long line of German settlers who established roots in Lancaster County Pennsylvania in the early 1700s looking for better opportunities. The Zartmans helped establish a Lutheran church in Brickerville PA that is still in use today, and hosts the Annual Zartman Family Reunion since the early 1900s.

Bill Zartman graduated from Johns Hopkins in political science with an MA, skipping the BA altogether. He then joined Yale for his doctorate. At 24, PhD in hand, he was preparing to start as a junior instructor at Yale when he was called to military service. He enlisted in the Navy and entered the Officer Candidate School. In 1958, he was offered a post in Port Lyautey, Morocco, two years after Moroccan independence. While in Morocco, Bill Zartman met and fell in love with a young French woman, Marie-Daniele Harmel. They married in 1960 in Kenitra, Morocco followed by a religious wedding in Caen, a prominent town in Normandy, France where Marie-Daniele had roots.

At the end of his military service, the Zartmans returned to the United States and settled in Columbia, SC, as Dr. Zartman had been invited to join the faculty at the University of South Carolina to teach International Relations, and also to teach courses on Africa and the Middle East. Within a couple of years, and after having published several books, the Zartmans headed back to Africa to conduct research for a book on International Relations in the New Africa (1966), followed by a book titled The Weak Confront the Strong: The Politics of Trade Negotiations between Africa and The European Union Community (1971) which propelled Dr. Zartman into the negotiation analysis field and in bridging the gap with Area studies.

Upon their return to USC, Dr. Zartman was invited to teach at NYU and was offered a tenured professorship there. While at NYU, Dr. Zartman had the opportunity to become founding executive secretary of the newly formed Middle East Studies Association, of which he eventually became its president. Soon thereafter, the American Overseas Research Center in (AORC) in North Africa was established, and backed by a consortium of US universities and run by academics working the area. Dr. Zartman was asked to chair the committee founding the American Institute of Maghreb Studies (AIMS), the first AORC to cover a region and not a state. Bill Zartman presided over AIMS for 12 years. The Center opened eventually in Tunis (CEMAT). AIMS brought US and Maghribi scholars together. In 1976, Bill Zartman was also invited to join the Board of Directors to the old American Legation in Tangier given to the US in 1821. Eventually, Dr. Zartman presided over TALMS and its new namesake, TALIM for 27 years. In time, the Legation became the Moroccan center of AIMS. At the same time, Bill Zartman's academic career progressed and he became the All-University Chairman of the Politics Department at NYU. The Zartmans also welcomed the birth of their son Alexander in 1974.

In the early 1980s, Bill Zartman was offered a position as the new director for the African Studies Program in the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University in Washington. SAIS was the perfect place to organize conferences and edit the results into books, create a program and eventually set up other programs for the school.

With his research on negotiation from his NYU days, he created a new concentration/major at SAIS in Conflict Management and became the Jacob Blaustein Distinguished Professor of International Organization and Conflict Resolution, and with a grant from the Blaustein Foundation, launched a new Journal, International Negotiations (jIN), the only regular peer-reviewed academic journal published at SAIS.

He launched one of the first experiential learning programs, the annual Conflict Management Research trip, where he led a group of students to areas of (moderate) conflict, so they could engage directly with the various parties and produce a report and provide policy recommendations. The field trips were a distinguishing trademark that set SAIS Conflict Management apart from other programs at competitor schools.

Dr. Zartman was equally proud of a smaller program he pioneered called PeaceKidZ. Small groups of students partnered with middle schools in Washington, DC, where they taught for 9 weeks the main concepts of conflict resolution following the 3Rs, Recognize, Respect, Resolve.

Outside of his work on Africa Dr. Zartman worked closely with academics across Europe on conflict transformation following the détente between the US and USSR. In the 1980s, he was one of the founding members of The PIN (Processes of International Negotiation) Group, born with a goal to promote the study of negotiation outside the US. Through PIN, Bill Zartman edited and published countless books. His latest book on Rethinking Conflict Resolution and Management, published in 2023, remains a testament of his innovative spirit and unwavering brilliance.

He was widely recognized scholar whose work has been supported by numerous prestigious grants from institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dr. Zartman has provided extensive service and leadership to the academic community, notably as a founding figure in several key organizations. He was the founding Executive Secretary-Treasurer and later President of the Middle East Studies Association, the founding President of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and the founding secretary-treasurer of the West African Research Association. His leadership also includes a 25-year presidency of the Tangier American Legation Museum Society and serving as vice-president of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. His expertise has also shaped the field of practical peacemaking; as a member of the International Peace Academy (Institute), he helped create its peacemaking focus, and he initiated negotiation courses at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI), where he also served on the negotiation project's steering committee. Dr. Zartman was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held senior advisory roles for the Fulbright Council and the Social Science Research Council.

Beyond academia, and bridging academics and researchers in African studies and around conflict resolution and negotiation, Bill Zartman also wrote a peace plan for Colombia leading to the disarmament of the FARC rebels in exchange for participation in normal electoral life, and collaborated on a report for the African heads of the Great Lakes region on the possibilities of peace in Congo and joined a mediation in the dispute among the 3 presidential claimants in Congo, Brazzaville.

Bill Zartman was the recipient of many awards including awards from the University of South Carolina and, on two occasions, from Johns Hopkins SAIS. but he was most proud of his Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM) and a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Catholic University of Louvain as well as a Doctorate Honoris Causa from Upsala University. In addition, the King of Morocco made him a Commander of the Moroccan Alawite Order (Ouissam Alawi).

When not teaching or writing books, he enjoyed spending time restoring an old Mill in Opequon, VA, harvesting oysters at their home in Lewes, DE, painting and listening to music and participating in his church choir for over 40 years. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Marie-Daniele, his son Alex, his daughter-in-law Susan and grandchildren Matthew and Grace.

Service:
Saturday, Aug 2, 2025
9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., followed by a reception
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
11612 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20904
The burial will take place at the Brickerville United Lutheran Church, PA later on August 2.

Flowers can be sent to St Stephen Lutheran Church, or donations in memory of I William Zartman can be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.