Stephen Philip Cohen is a scholar on Middle Eastern affairs. In 1979 he founded the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development. He continues to serve as president of that institute. The Institute is based at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.[1]
He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University. His Ph.D. was in social psychology. Early on he concerned himself with problem-solving workshops between Israelis and Palestinians. He published a book on small group interaction between the two groups.[2]
He has taught at Harvard University, Hebrew University, Princeton University and Lehigh University. In the 1970s he was an intermediary between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Moshe Dayan. In this time he also organized the first meetings between Shimon Peres and Anwar Sadat and between Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Abba Eban with the leaders of the National Democratic Party (Egypt).[3] Dayan and the future United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali encouraged him to establish the institutute that would be come the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development.
He has developed and maintained relationships with Arab heads of states and Israeli office-holders from the Labor Party and the Likud Party.
From 1990 to 2000 he served on the staff of the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, not to be confused with the above cited organization on Middle Eastern affairs.