Resources
The Oslo forum process strives to critically examine the current practice of conflict mediation. The themes raised at each event are intended to provoke discussions, suggest interesting questions and propose new or unconventional approaches.
Background papers are prepared prior to the retreats to set the tone for discussions and to sensitise participants to current debates and innovative ideas.
Power-sharing, transitional governments and the role of mediation
Power-sharing transitional governments are common ingredients of peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts. This paper focuses on the sharing of power in the transitional executive and legislature, and argues that the international community has an important role to play in assisting power-sharing governments to manage their countries’ political transition.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over: what role for mediation in post-agreement contexts?
International mediation is conventionally treated as the reserve of peace processes which, once culminating in a peace agreement, are expected to progress to implementation and various forms of post-conflict recovery in which mediation would have little or no part. Many have criticised the degree to which mediators focus on getting a deal and getting out, leaving the messy business of implementing those deals to others, at least until the deals fray or come apart, requiring new rounds of mediation.
This paper examines whether there may also be a role for mediation-like efforts in relation to post-agreement dialogue processes or similar efforts to broaden popular support for a settlement.
Gender sensitivity: nicety or necessity in peace process management?
This paper offers examples of how issues in peace processes can be treated in a gender- sensitive manner, an exercise that is surprisingly simple yet can yield rich analytical results. The arguments in this paper are based principally on the practical experience of professionals currently or recently involved in the management of peace processes in Aceh, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, the Middle East, Nepal, Northern Ireland, the Sudan/Darfur and Uganda, together with some secondary academic research and analysis. This paper explores what peace-process actors, including mediators, have done to make peace processes more sensitive to gender, what else might be done, and the benefits (and costs, if any) of such strategies.
The Korean Peninsula conflict: Mediation in the midst of a changing regional order
As divided Korea turns sixty-three, the Korean peninsula conflict seems like one of the most protracted and unmediated of its kind since the end of World War II. Yet, over the post-Cold War years, especially since the coming of the Kim Dae Jung administration in 1998, each has also developed mechanisms that allow it to function as a “normal” state in the international community. This paper seeks to assess the possibilities and limitations of third-party mediation in the resolution of the Korean peninsula conflict.
Resources, rising powers and international security
Energy security and the rise of China and India are two important elements of the current international discourse. Yet, we have barely begun to understand the full import of the intersection between the two issues. This paper raises some broader questions on the tension between the two Asian giants’ quest for energy security and the presumed Western consensus on the organising principles of international security. The paper begins with an assessment of the unfolding changes in the foreign policies of China and India amid the new imperatives of economic growth and resource security.
Will war lead to peace in Sri Lanka?
By formally abrogating the Ceasefire Agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan government has finally proclaimed what has been a reality for two years – the effective end of the ceasefire brokered by the Norwegians six years ago. The Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers have decided that war is not only inevitable but also required, before any fresh political process can emerge. The Tamil Tigers can emerge defeated, weakened, or emboldened from this fighting. This paper examines these three very different scenarios.
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.