INADR was founded in 2002 and is the first organization that sponsored mediation tournaments where students were the mediators in an international competition. Since that time, INADR tournaments have been hosted in more than sixteen countries and have had participants and representatives from over fifty countries.

Mediation tournaments began at the undergraduate level in 2000 as an outgrowth of the American Mock Trial Association with the first tournament held at Drake University. INADR began offering tournaments, and in 2004, the organization was formally established by a group of educators, mediators, and lawyers. INADR mediation tournaments were the first, and for many years, the only intercollegiate mediation tournaments where student participants were in the roles of mediators, advocates, and clients.

The goal of INADR has been to create an awareness of mediation and other forms of dispute resolution. The Academy believes that there is a better way to resolve differences than the adversarial system, which implies that differences can be resolved only through continued conflict. Former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger declared that our legal system “has become too costly, too painful, too destructive, too inefficient for a truly civilized people.”

INADR is dedicated to the principle that change comes through education. The Academy believes that peace and reconciliation should be the goals of mediation. Further, it believes that preserving and enhancing relationships is at the core of its work. INADR is educating the next generation of leaders to create a more peaceful and cooperative world.