Jacob Bercovitch is a professor of international relations in the Political Science Department at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He is widely regarded as a leading expert on international mediation, especially in protracted or intractable conflicts that repeatedly erupt into violence.

Dr. Bercovitch directs the University of Canterbury's program on diplomacy and teaches and conducts research on international politics and international conflict resolution. He has received fellowships from Harvard University, the University of London, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and has served as adviser to the government of New Zealand on preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping. He is also affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard and sits on the editorial boards of five professional journals on international relations and conflict. Dr. Bercovitch has written and edited eight books on mediation and conflict resolution, the most recent being Studies in International Mediation (2000, editor) and International Conflict Management: 1945-1995 (1997). He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics.