International negotiator and former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell will be presented with a $25,000 award at the New York Press Club May 29 at an event tailored to show that there is hope of resolution in even the most bitter disputes. Theodore W. Kheel, president of the New York-based Foundation for Prevention and Early Resolution of Conflict (PERC), will present the award, which he has named the "Master Locksmith of Deadlock Bargaining Award." Mitchell, the first recipient, is being honored for his successful mediation of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The program, which includes a high-powered symposium on "Making Mediation Work," celebrates the fifth anniversary of the founding of the joint Cornell University/PERC Institute on Conflict Resolution. The institute is directed by David B. Lipsky, who served as dean of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations for nine years.

Symposium participants will explore recent contentious disputes in international, business and community affairs and discuss how mediation could lead to peaceful and lasting resolutions.

• In international affairs, Mitchell and Dennis Ross, who served as President Bill Clinton's chief mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will discuss the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
• The Microsoft court case will be examined by Ken Auletta, author of World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies ; William L. Lurie, former president of the Business Roundtable; and Kheel, a lawyer who was appointed by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Ford to mediate major national disputes involving railroads, airlines and shipping.
• Race relations will be the focus of the discussion on community disputes by New York Congressman Charles B. Rangel, author Gail Sheehy and Raymond F. Kelly, former commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service and of the New York City police who is now head of corporate security for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.

Mitchell, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1982, served for 12 years and was Senate majority leader when he left that body. In 1995 and 1996, at the request of the British and Irish governments, he served as chairman of the International Commission on Disarmament in Northern Irelan and was chairman of the peace negotiations there. For those efforts, he received awards that included the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United Nations (UNESCO) Peace Prize.

Mitchell is the author of two books. With his colleague, Sen. Bill Cohen of Maine, he wrote Men of Zeal , describing the Iran-Contra investigation. In 1990, his second book, World on Fire , describing the threat of the greenhouse effect and recommending steps to curb it, was published.

Upon leaving the Senate, Mitchell joined the Washington, D.C., law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.