Mediation actors profile
A role for the private sector in peace processes? Examples and implications for third party mediation
The role of the private sector in different aspects of conflict resolution has received increasing attention in recent years. This paper discusses the diverse roles played by the private sector during Track 1 peace processes in particular, drawing on a variety of examples from different contexts. The examples illustrate that where the private sector enjoys credibility (sometimes higher than state parties), has access to conflict parties, and a strategic interest in the resolution of a conflict, it can become actively involved and have significant impact on the course of a peace process, for better or worse.
China's role in the mediation and resolution of conflict in Africa
The salience of China in relation to Darfur has generated a paradox in popular perceptions whereby China is seen as both the cause and the potential solution to an armed conflict. Such a black-and-white view may make effective ammunition for advocacy, but China’s role in Sudan and the African continent more generally is actually more complex. This paper offers a short assessment of China’s role in the mediation and resolution of conflict in Africa, with Darfur used as a key example – in many ways forming the exception to the wider rule.
Talk or fight? Al Qaeda from centre to periphery
Once we shift attention from the centre of AQ to its periphery, engaging AQ becomes comparable to engaging other kinds of armed groups, regardless of how connectedthey may be to AQ itself.
EU influence in conflict: power to mitigate or to mediate?
It is often assumed that the European Union (EU) has the potential to play a serious role in peacemaking. The EU provides generous financial assistance to conflict-ridden countries, and underwrites many ongoing peace negotiations, but is it bringing its undoubted economic and political power and influence to bear directly in mediation efforts?
The UN’s political role in a transitional international moment
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has taken office at a time of significant turbulence in international politics. As the Secretary-General and his new ‘cabinet' begin to take stock of the UN's agenda and relevant capacities, they face several sets of challenges. Some of these emerge from the terrain character of conflict; some from the transitional international political environment; others from a growing band of competitors; and some from the UN itself.
This brief note traces some of these challenges through the lens of their potential impact on the space available to the UN to play a political role in conflict and crisis management; and sets out some elements of possible strategy to navigate the likely turbulence ahead.
Power in mediation: does size matter?
The end of the Cold War saw the rise in the international belief that mediation was an art worth pursuing when in the 1990s increasing numbers of conflicts started ending by negotiation. Yet it is no coincidence that the end of the Cold War also saw the rise of a uni-polar world in which the US could act as a superpower for peace, backing, pushing, and where necessary bombing parties to the negotiating table. So does talk of a decline in US diplomatic power spell the end of this mediation heyday? Or does the power to make a durable peace come from multiple sources - the mediator's personality, relationships within a process, perceptionsfrom outside it, not to mention the political evolution of a country?
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The views expressed in papers posted on this website are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the HD Centre.