Arvid Bell is a scholar and entrepreneur who specializes in negotiation strategy, crisis management, conflict system analysis, international security, and simulation design. He is the CEO of the Negotiation Task Force (NTF), an advisory and R&D group that was incubated at the Davis Center.

Bell was appointed to the inaugural cohort of Davis Center Scholar-Entrepreneurs, outstanding scholars and innovators who pursue pioneering research agendas, build new institutions, mentor students, and bring regional studies closer to practice. He founded the Negotiation Task Force at the Davis Center and directed it from 2019 to 2023, until the NTF transitioned out of the university to become an independent organization. Today, the NTF provides research and development, training, and advisory services in high-risk negotiations, geopolitics, and corporate dealmaking to clients in government, military, science, and industry across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

A pioneer in negotiation systems design, Bell has launched a new generation of immersive crisis simulations used globally to prepare decision-makers in government, military, and the private sector for high-risk situations. He has delivered guest lectures and testimonies at institutions ranging from the European Parliament to the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and led workshops to a diverse array of audiences, including high school students, business leaders, and U.S. military officers. Previously, Bell was a research associate at Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), a research fellow with the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, a visiting scholar at Columbia University and Reichman University, and a lecturer on Government at Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, where he received the Certificate of Teaching Excellence.

Bell has published research in scientific journals including International Negotiation, Negotiation Journal, and International Studies Perspectives and was a co-investigator of the Middle East and North Africa Negotiation Report, a collaborative effort of scholars and students from Harvard University, Tufts University, Brandeis University, and Reichman University. He is also the chair of the executive board of the Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA), a 2024 Atlantic Council Millennium fellow, a non-resident scholar with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a Scotia Group member, and an advisor with the Conflict Analytics Lab, a consortium for AI research on law, compliance and conflict resolution.

He holds a Franco-German dual master’s degree in political science and international affairs from the Free University of Berlin and Sciences Po Paris, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a McCloy Fellow, and a doctoral degree in political science from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.

Selected Publications