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Innovative Peace Mediation?

3 | 2017 14. Jahrgang

Ten Recent Developments in Peace Mediation

The Technocracy Trap

Frieden in Kolumbien

Neglected Tool: Empathy in Conflict Resolution

Collective Trauma Matters

The Korean Peninsula Challenge

Grenzen der Klärungshilfe

Feldkompetenz in der Mediationssupervision

1413|2017

Perspektive|Editorial

Herausgeberteam: Friedrich Schwarzinger,

Benedikta Deym-Soden, Yvonne Hofstetter Rogger

Liebe Leserinnen und Leser

Dieses Heft ist einmal mehr dem Schwerpunkt-Thema

Friedensmediation gewidmet. Schon frühere Hefte sowie

einzelne Artikel1 haben sich mit dem Thema befasst. Dies,

obwohl nur ein kleiner Teil der pm-Leserschaft Friedens-

mediatorInnen im internationalen Bereich sind.

Die internationalen Nachrichten sind geprägt von Krisen

und Kriegen. Gleichzeitig sind zahllose nationale und in-

ternationale Bemühungen am Werk, um Deeskalation und

dauernden Frieden in z.Zt. über 35 Kriegen und Krisen-

herden im südlichen Amerika, in Afrika, im Mittleren Osten

und in Asien zu ermöglichen. FriedensmediatorInnen aus

Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz sind daran be-

teiligt. Zudem ist an diesem Thema von Bedeutung, dass

wir manche Kriegsfolgen auch als Flüchtlingsbewegun-

gen in unserer Nachbarschaft unmittelbar miterleben.

Die Fragen, die uns bei der Suche nach AutorInnen und

der Artikelauswahl leiteten waren: Braucht und gibt es für

diese Friedensbemühungen innovative Ansätze? Würden

mehr Konflikte gelöst – und vielleicht auch schneller –,

wäre die Friedensmediation innovativer?

Es zeigt sich, dass das Credo der uns vertrauten Mediati-

on, nämlich, dass die Parteien ihre eigenen Lösungen fin-

den, in der internationalen Friedensvermittlung heute noch

als Innovation gelten könnte, denn allzu oft entscheiden

Drittmächte nicht nur über Kriege sondern auch über den

Frieden. Ein gutes Beispiel dafür ist Syrien.

perspektive mediation has dealt with the topic of internati-

onal peace mediation in the past1, and this in spite of the

fact that only few of its readers are peace mediators.

Crisis and wars dominate news – internationally and natio-

nally. And, simultaneously, innumerable national and inter-

national efforts are under way to de-escalate critical situa-

tions and create lasting peace in presently some 35 wars

or smoldering hostilities in South America, in Africa, in the

Middle East and in Asia. Peace mediators from Germany,

Austria and Switzerland are involved in all these efforts. The

topic is also relevant in as far as one brutal effect of war is

the fact that persons of all ages and walks of life have to flee

their homes only to become refugees in our neighborhood.

The questions that guided us in looking for authors and

specific topics were: Are innovative peace mediation ef-

forts needed and do they even exist? Would there be more

solutions, and even quicker, if peace mediation was more

innovative?

As it turned out, the guiding principle of mediation that we

are very familiar with, namely that parties find their own so-

lutions, could pass for an innovation in international peace

mediation, because all too often third parties make deci-

sions not only regarding wars, but also regarding peace. A

case in point is Syria.

1) Siehe Seite 179 in dieser Nummer, auf der alle bisher erschienenen Artikel, die sich mit Friedensmediation befassen, aufge-

führt werden. See list of articles on page 179.

Dear Readers,

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Perspektive|Editorial

Und so bleiben die Fragen bestehen: Würden die Kon-

fliktparteien bessere Lösungen finden, wenn der Vor-

gang zur Lösungsfindung innovativer wäre? Und wie

könnte diese Innovation aussehen? In diesem Heft be-

leuchten wir verschiedene Aspekte von Innovation in der

internationalen Friedensmediation und stellen dabei die

Konfliktakteure in den Vordergrund.

Dem Überblicksartikel über die zehn wichtigsten Trends

in der Friedensarbeit von David Lanz, folgt Sidonia Gab-

riels Besinnung darauf, dass Mediation per se innovativ

sei und dieser der Mediation inhärente Aspekt gerade in

den internationalen Friedensbemühungen, illustriert an

einem Beispiel aus Mali, vor dem nur allzu verbreiteten

technokratischen Vorgehen Vorrang haben sollte.

Mathias Zeller nimmt denselben Faden auf und analy-

siert die besondere Rolle, die Insider MediatorInnen zur

Sicherung eines noch nicht ganz stabilen und jungen

Friedens in Kolumbien – nach einem 50-jährigen Krieg

– haben könnten.

Ursula König und Cordula Reimann führen in ihrem Bei-

trag das Thema „Heilendes Erinnern“ von Heft 4/2016

insofern fort, als sie die Bedeutung der Anerkennung

von und den umsichtigen Umgang mit kollektiven, d.h.

gesamtgesellschaftlichen Traumata, um einen beständi-

gen Frieden sichern zu können, betonen.

Matt Waldman behandelt ein MediatorInnen vertrautes

Thema und setzt es als Programm auch in seinem ei-

gens dafür gegründeten Institut um: Inwieweit muss

oder kann Empathie auch in der internationalen Frie-

densarbeit von Belang sein? Der Autor geht dieser Fra-

ge nach, und erläutert wie und warum Empathie gerade

in der internationalen Arbeit neue Konfliktlösungsansät-

ze ermöglicht.

Und zu guter Letzt kommt mit Dan Leaf auch ein bri-

santes und hochaktuelles Thema zur Sprache: Gibt es

als Antwort zu den den Weltfrieden gefährdenden Dro-

hungen seitens Nord-Koreas, klügere, umfassendere,

Ansätze, als mit verstärkten Gegendrohungen die Krise

zu eskalieren? Wie liessen sich falsche Annahmen Nord-

Korea betreffend konkret verändern? Dies allein kann als

innovatives Vorgehen in der Friedensfindung mit Nord-

Korea betrachtet werden.

Für dieses Heft hat sich die pm mit der Bitte um konkrete

Mitarbeit und Mitverantwortung an swisspeace gewandt

als einer für Friedensbemühungen bekannten und welt-

And thus the questions remain: Would conflicting parties

find better solutions, if the process was more innova-

tive? And how would innovative processes in international

peace mediation look like? In this pm-edition we high-

light various aspects of innovation in international peace

mediation and feature the actors of the conflict.

To start us off, David Lanz, identifies ten recent develop-

ments in peace mediation. Sidonia Gabriel’s contribu-

tion focuses on the theme that mediation is intrinsically

innovative and she sets this notion apart from the all to

technocratic procedures that generally characterize the

search for peace in armed conflicts. She illustrates her

thesis with an example from Mali.

Mathias Zeller focuses as well on this aspect while fea-

turing the importance of insider mediators in the context

of securing a lasting peace – after 50 years of war – in

Columbia.

Ursula König and Cordula Reimann emphasize the im-

portance of the understanding of collective trauma (ver-

sus individual trauma) in order to better working through

a conflict transformation process for developing a las-

ting peace.

Matt Waldman deals with a topic that is well-known to

mediators and that receives through the “Center for

Empathy in International Affairs” a programmatic value:

How can or must empathy also be an intrinsic aspect

of international peace mediation? The author analyzes

this question and suggests that empathy is a useful and

valuable tool for preventing, mitigating and resolving vi-

olent conflict.

And finally, Dan Leaf deals with a politically charged and

timely topic: Would there be better responses and more

encompassing approaches regarding the Korean Penin-

sula challenge than countering with threats and clinging

to the sole issue of denuclearization? The author urges

to reassess negotiations with a number of concrete sug-

gestions.

In order to develop the content of this pm-edition, we

asked swisspeace, a well-known and worldwide actively

involved institution, whether they would consider colla-

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Perspektive|Editorial

weit tätigen Institution. Wir danken, allen voran Sidonia

Gabriel, für diese Zusammenarbeit. Ihre Sachkunde und

die internationale Vernetzung sind diesem Heft sehr zu-

gute gekommen.

Auch hat das Genfer Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

mitgewirkt und uns den kürzlich preisgekrönten und für

das Oslo Forum 2017 geschriebenen Artikel von Dan

Leaf Nord-Korea betreffend zum Abdruck überlassen.

Auch dafür danken wir.

Deutschsprachige AutorInnnen haben im Hinblick dar-

auf, dass zur Thematik von Peace Mediation in der Regel

in Englisch publiziert wird, ihre Artikel englisch geschrie-

ben. Das hat zur Folge, dass Sie – für die pm ganz unüb-

lich – für das Schwerpunktthema mehrheitlich englische

Artikel vorfinden. Diesen Artikeln ist jeweils eine ausführ-

liche deutsche Zusammenfassung angefügt. Jedenfalls

hoffen wir den Leserkreis der pm durch diese für einmal

erweiterte englische Ausgabe etwas auszudehnen.

In der Rubrik „Weitere Beiträge“ analysiert Nico H.

Fleisch ein Fallbeispiel, an dem er aufzeigt, dass die

Klärungshilfe als Mediationsmethode in hierarchischen

Organisationen, resp. Teams, an ihre Grenzen stossen

kann. Auch das, in einem gewissen Sinne, eine Lehre für

die internationale Friedensvermittlung. Tanja Lutz behan-

delt die Frage, wie weit und in welchen Situationen für

die Supervision in Mediation Feldkompetenz erforderlich

ist. Auch diese Frage hat für FriedensmediatorInnen eine

gewisse Relevanz: Wie könnten sie sich der beruflichen

Reflexion widmen?

Die internationale Mediation kann nicht alle Konflikte lö-

sen und nie den politischen Willen zum Friedenmachen

aufwiegen. Das Heft zeigt auf, wie dringend eine innova-

tive Tätigkeit auf diesem Gebiet ist und macht Mut, die

bestehenden Bemühungen weiterzuführen.

Sidonia Gabriel

swisspeace

borating with us. Foremost we thank Sidonia Gabriel for

having taken on this task. Her expertise and international

network has greatly enriched this pm-edition.

The Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue has also

contributed by allowing us to include the 2017 Oslo

Forum Peacewriter prize winning essay by Dan Leaf

mentioned above. We thank them for that.

Because it turned out, that most authors wrote in English

we added for the generally German speaking readers

of this journal a more comprehensive German summary

at the end of the English articles. We thereby trust that

the readership can be extended for this rather unusual

edition with an English predominance.

In the section “Additional Articles” Nico H. Fleisch ana-

lyzes a case-study demonstrating that “Conflict Clarifi-

cation” used as a specific mediation approach reaches

its limits when applied in hierarchically structured orga-

nizations or teams. This too might be a lesson for in-

ternational peace mediation. Tanja Lutz adresses the

question in which contexts and for what purpose super-

vision (professional reflection) of mediators should be

done by persons knowledgeable in theory and practice

about supervision approaches as well as about media-

tion. An interesting question also for peace mediators:

How and when could they engage in a thorough process

of reflection?

Peace mediation cannot resolve all international con-

flicts and can never compensate for the political will to

make peace. This pm-edition demonstrates, however,

how significant innovative attempts in this regard are

and encourages to continue with the endeavors.

Noa Zanolli

perspektive mediation

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172 Collective Trauma

Matters

Perspektive|Inhalt

Inhalt

146 Ten Recent Developments in

Peace Mediation

153 The Technocrazy Trap

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt

Perspektive|Weitere Beiträge

Editorial 141

Ten Recent Developments in Peace Mediation 146

David Lanz

The Technocrazy Trap 153

Innovation or Technocracy in International Mediation?

Sidonia Gabriel

Frieden in Kolumbien 159

Eine Aufgabe für Insider MediatorInnen

Mathias Zeller

Neglected Tool: Empathy in Conflict Resolution 166

Matt Waldman

Collective Trauma Matters 172

Tips for Mediation and Dialog Process

Ursula König und Cordula Reimann

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180 The Korean Peninsula

Challenge

186 Grenzen der Klärungshilfe 194 Feldkompetenz in der

Mediationssupervision

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt

Perspektive|Weitere Beiträge

The Korean Peninsula Challenge 180

Shifting the Paradigm

Dan Leaf

Grenzen der Klärungshilfe 186

Mögliche Hindernisse bei hierarchisch strukturierten Teams

Nico H. Fleisch

Feldkompetenz in der Mediationssupervision 194

Tanja Lutz

Impressum 152

pm-Hefte und Artikel mit Schwerpunkt Friedensarbeit 179

Buchbesprechungen 201

Zur Zeitschrift 205

1463|2017

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David Lanz*

Overview: While a few years ago the world seemed on a path towards increasing

peacefulness, the situation in 2017 is different. Stability has become unhinged as

armed conflict and terrorism are on the rise and geopolitical power struggles are

intensifying. This article examines how peace mediation has evolved in the last

decade and identifies ten developments in regards to the changing international

context and the peace mediation practice.

Überblick: Obwohl es noch bis vor wenigen Jahren den Anschein machte, die Welt

sei friedlicher geworden, ist dies im Jahr 2017 nicht mehr der Fall. Bewaffnete Kon-

flikte, Terrorismus und geopolitische Spannungen haben zugenommen. Der Autor

identifiziert zehn Trends, die dieses veränderte Umfeld und die gegenwärtige Praxis

der Friedensmediation kennzeichnen.

Keywords: Peace mediation, global trends, professionalization, private diplomacy,

inclusivity, protracted conflicts, peacemaking 2.0.

Ten Recent Developments in Peace Mediation

Introduction: Better Angels Indeed?

In 2011, Harvard professor Steven Pinker published The

Better Angels of Our Nature, in which he argued that

humankind has become progressively less violent and

that the world is experiencing the most peaceful time in

human history.1 Numbers seemed to confirm Pinker’s

thesis: according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program,

in 2010, the number of conflicts decreased and war-re-

lated fatalities were among the lowest in the post-Cold

War period.2 Some observers, for example the research-

ers of the Canada-based Human Security Report Pro-

ject, claimed that international activism to promote

peace, which includes peace mediation, has directly

contributed to the decline of violent conflict.3

Today, in 2017, such optimism has dissipated. New con-

flicts have erupted in places that were relatively peace-

ful back in 2010, including Syria, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine

and South Sudan. War-related fatalities have increased4

and the number of displaced persons is the highest

in de cades.5 Terrorism is on the rise,6 and geopolitical

*) The author thanks Jonas Baumann, Laurie Nathan, Mat-

thias Siegfried and Corinne von Burg for valuable com-

ments and suggestions. All views expressed in this arti-

cle are his own.

1) Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Vio-lence Has Declined, New York: Viking Books, 2011.

2) Exact figures of number of conflicts and battle-related

deaths are available from the Uppsala Conflict Data Pro-

gram (UCDP) website, http://ucdp.uu.se/#/encyclopedia

(number of conflicts) and http://ucdp.uu.se/#/exploratory

(fatalities). (All website cited in this article were accessed

on 17 February 2017.)

3) Human Security Report Project, Human Security Report 2009/2010: The Causes of Peace and the Shrinking Costs

of War, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, chapter 4.

4) UCDP estimates the number of war-related fatalities

at 131,885 for 2014 and 118,788 for 2015, compared to

30,706 for 2010. Numbers drawn from UCDP website,

http://ucdp.uu.se/#/exploratory.

5) In 2015, 65.3 million individual were forcibly displaced

worldwide. (See UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displace-ment in 2015, Geneva: UNCHR, 2016.)

6) According to data of the Global Terrorism Database,

the number of terrorist attacks as well as the number of

deaths from terrorism has significantly risen since 2011,

reaching a peak in 2014: Institute for Economics and

Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2016, Sydney: Institute for

Economics and Peace, 2016, at pp. 16 and 18.

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competition has intensified, creating a sense of insta-

bility and insecurity. The bottom line is that the underly-

ing systemic and structural causes remain prevalent in

many parts of the world, even as the incidence of armed

conflict may rise and fall.

States and international organizations have increased

their mediation capacities, and more non-governmen-

tal actors are active in mediation. The principles under-

pinning good peace mediation practice are more clearly

articulated. Looking at the last ten years, how has peace

mediation changed? What are new developments and

patterns? To provide some answers, this article identi-

fies ten recent developments in peace mediation. These

developments are listed in no particular order, and they

are based on the author’s analysis of the situation, some

related to changes in the international context, others to

the evolution of practice.

1. Demand and Supply Growth

Compared to ten years ago, peace mediation today

plays a more prominent role in global governance and

there is higher demand for mediation on the interna-

tional scene. This has to do, on the one hand, with the

increasing number of conflicts, which the international

community is desperate to contain and for which media-

tion often emerges as the standard response. However,

this does not mean that mediation is necessarily the

right tool – to the contrary, it is sometimes a fig leaf when

the international community is unable or unwilling to act

more decisively. It also does not mean that mediation is

more often used in relative terms. In fact, Svensson and

Onken show that the percentage of mediated conflict

dyads has stagnated in recent years, even if the num-

ber of mediation engagements has increased.7 On the

other hand, the growing demand is linked with the rec-

ognition, very much brought to the fore by the situation

in Libya since 2011, that non-consensual military inter-

ventions often fall short and that they remain very con-

troversial, especially as non-Western powers such as

China and Russia assert themselves. Mediation as a

consent-based response to armed conflict has gained

traction in this context, as evidenced by the UN High-

Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations’ empha-

sis on the “primacy of politics”, including a strong role

for mediation.8

The growing demand is matched by an increase in the

supply of peace mediation. A number of international

and regional organizations, including the UN, the Euro-

pean Union and the African Union, have strengthened

their mediation capacities, creating dedicated support

structures and standby teams of mediation experts.

States are also increasingly active on the mediation

scene, including the ‘usual suspects’ like Switzerland

and Norway, but also newcomers, for example Germany

and Brazil. Specialized NGOs have also grown and

some, for example the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

and Crisis Management Initiative, now operate around

the globe.9

2. Crowded Field, or Not?

The growth of peace mediation means that in a given

conflict there is now a multitude of mediation actors,

both governmental and private. This has fostered the

emergence of multi-track processes, with different third

parties covering different aspects of conflict resolution.

However, in some contexts the multiplication of medi-

ators resulted in a ‘crowded field’, which in turn led to

competition between mediators and forum shopping by

parties, looking for the mediator that offers them the best

deal.10 The prominence of mediation has also meant that

politicians have taken uncoordinated and ill-advised ini-

tiatives, descending on conflict countries and trying to

resolve complex conflicts in a few days.11 However, as

Peace mediation is a response to armed conflict

and as such, its changing nature has affected me-

diation practice. Beyond context, the field itself

has evolved.

»

7) Isak Svensson and Monika Onken, ‘Global trends of

peace negotiations and conflict mediation’ in Michèle Roth

et al. (eds.), Global Trends 2015. Prospects for World Soci-ety, Bonn: Development and Peace Foundation, 2015.

8) Report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace

Operations on uniting our strengths for peace: politics,

partnership and people, UN Doc. A/70/95, 17 June 2015,

para 43, p. 26.

9) For an overview of different mediation actors, see Simon

Mason and Damiano Sguaitamatti, Mapping Mediators, Zürich: Center for Security Studies, 2011.

10) David Lanz and Rachel Gasser, A Crowded Field: Competition and Coordination in International Peace Medi-ation, Mediation Arguments no. 2, Pretoria: Centre for

Mediation in Africa, 2013.

11) Jonas Baumann, ‘Verzweifeltes Vermitteln’, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 19 November 2014.

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Svensson and Onken remind us, the majority of con-

flict dyads still do not receive mediation,12 suggesting

that only a few conflicts – those that receive media atten-

tion and donor budgets – are truly crowded, while oth-

ers remain rather deserted. The growth of mediation also

primarily happened in Western countries, particularly in

the non-governmental sector, which means that the bal-

ance between Global North and Global South remains

lopsided.

3. Professionalization

The field of mediation is on a trend towards profession-

alization. Peace mediation has become a career path

and has led to a pool of professionals, who know each

other, hold similar values, speak a common language,

attend the same events and work for a set of perhaps

30-40 mediation organizations, both governmental and

non-governmental. Professional networks have formed

to bring these organizations together, for example the

Mediation Support Network established in 2009, which

includes the UN and 20 mediation NGOs.13 There are

established training courses, which mediation profes-

sional attend and, as of the fall of 2017, there will even

be a Master’s degree on peace mediation hosted by the

Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.

Another aspect of professionalization refers to the artic-

ulation of the norms and principles underpinning good

peace mediation practice. The UN Guidance for Effec-

tive Mediation, which was promulgated as an annex to

an UN General Assembly resolution in 2012, spells out

these norms. They include both foundational norms,

such as the consent of parties to mediation, as well as

aspirational norms, such as the need for mediation to

include all relevant stakeholders and the need for real-

istic implementation plans in peace agreements.14 Hav-

ing said this, it is not sure whether these developments

have made actual mediation practice more professional.

There are, as the next point will show, also developments

countering professionalization.

4. Geopolitics and Transactional Diplomacy

The rivalry between great powers has increased in recent

years, as evidenced by the fallout between Russia and

the West over the Ukraine crisis, the war in Syria, and

tensions in the South China Sea. Competition between

big powers often goes at the expense of international

cooperation in established multilateral institutions and

instead favors what Crisis Group president Jean-Ma-

rie Guéhenno termed “transactional diplomacy”15. This

refers to bilateral deal making aimed at short-term gains

and based on the respective strengths of negotiat-

ing sides. In mediation, this has meant that structured

processes have been usurped, or at least temporar-

ily replaced, by ad hoc initiatives led by presidents or

foreign ministers, rather than designated envoys, often

conflating the role of negotiator and mediator in a prob-

lematic way. A prime example is the initiative by Rus-

sia, Turkey and Iran to convene the Syrian peace talks in

Astana in January 2017, complicating the UN-led medi-

ation process in Geneva. However, the turn to short-

term power diplomacy, rather than long-term structured

mediation, is not only the purview of non-Western pow-

ers. The U.S. used this approach to deal with the Syria

crisis at different moments and, with the advent of Don-

ald Trump, is likely to rely on it in the future. France and

Germany also used power diplomacy mediation to man-

age the Ukraine crisis.

5. Towards Inclusive Mediation, or Not?

The principle of inclusivity is increasingly entrenched

among UN and Western peace mediation practitioners.

The push towards inclusive mediation, according to the

UN, “rests on the assumption that building sustainable

peace requires integrating diverse societal perspectives,

those of conflicting parties and other stakeholders, into

the peace process.”16

In any case, the need for coordination between

mediators, agreeing on a division of labor in the

context of a multi-track mediation strategy and,

for Track 1 processes, rallying behind a single

duly mandated mediator, has increased.

»

12) Svensson and Onken, ‘Global trends of peace nego-

tiations’.

13) A full list of members is available from the website of

the Mediation Support Network: http://mediationsupport-

network.net/,

14) Sara Hellmüller, Julia Palmiano Federer and Mathias

Zeller, The Role of Norms in International Peace Mediation, Bern: swisspeace, 2015.

15) Jean-Marie Guéhenno, ’10 Conflicts to Watch in 2017’,

Foreign Policy, 5 January 2017, available from http://foreign-

policy.com/2017/01/05/10-conflicts-to-watch-in-2017/.

16) UN Department of Political Affairs, Guidance on Gen-der and Inclusive Mediation Strategies, New York: UN, Feb-

ruary 2017, p. 6.

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Across both dimensions, inclusivity emphasizes the

participation of women in peace talks. Many media-

tors heeded the call and devised formats to make the

processes they lead more inclusive. In Syria, for exam-

ple, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura established a Wom-

en’s Advisory Board and a Civil Society Support Room,

which meet in parallel to official negotiations and inform

the mediation team. Another example is South Sudan,

where the IGAD special envoys tried to include repre-

sentatives of civil society as part of the official negoti-

ation process. These efforts notwithstanding, the final

negotiations leading to a peace agreement often remain

exclusive. This may be for good reasons, as it may be

impossible to get an agreement otherwise, but it sug-

gests that the turn to inclusivity is often symbolic and

has not yet fundamentally changed mediation practice.

The previously mentioned trend towards transactional

diplomacy, where peace settlements reflect the balance

of power at the geopolitical level, rather than the synthe-

sis of broad-based political consultations at the national

level, also counteracts inclusivity.

6. Differentiation of Formats

A peace process goes through different phases and

requires different sets of agreements to stop the fight-

ing, create a framework for a political transition, and

renew the social contract for sustainable peace. Peace

mediation used to combine these elements in the con-

text of multi-year negotiations that resulted in a compre-

hensive peace settlement.18 The negotiations between

the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Lib-

eration Movement leading to the 2005 Comprehensive

Peace Agreement is a case in point. Today, there seems

to be a shift away from unified processes towards sep-

arate negotiation formats tackling different aspects of

a peace process. This means there are separate, usu-

ally sequential, but sometimes also parallel negotiations

with different intermediators to reach an agreement on

ceasefire, followed by a framework for political transi-

tion, and finally a broad-based national dialogue.19 The

architecture of the ongoing Syria negotiations, as man-

dated by the UN Security Council in resolution 2254 of

December 2015, reflects this approach, with separate

negotiating tracks to achieve a ceasefire and a political

settlement, followed, eventually, by a national dialogue.

The advantage of differentiated formats is that they allow

variance of mediators, inclusivity, and topics to suit the

political context and stage of the peace process. The

disadvantage is a lack of coherence and a risk of los-

ing momentum.

7. International Mediation Unwanted

In recent years, non-Western powers, especially China

and Russia, have weighed in more strongly and pushed

back against international intervention in foreign con-

flicts. This primarily concerns non-consensual mili-

tary interventions. Some states also use sovereignty

arguments to criticize the intrusive nature of interna-

tional peace mediation, despite the fact that the UN

in its Guidance for Effective Mediation insists on con-

sent and national ownership. The increasing emphasis

on sovereignty, compounded by anti-imperialist senti-

ments, has led to situations where international medi-

ators are unwanted. A prime example is the peace pro-

cess in Myanmar, where national actors led the process

from the beginning. The negotiations between the FARC

and the Colombian government are also relevant here.

There was no formal mediator, although outside coun-

tries supported the process in various ways. Colombia

is thus indicative of a significant development:

They support negotiation processes from the second

row, they provide expertise on specific topics, and they

work with individual parties.

8. Protracted Conflict, Second Generation

The term ‘protracted conflicts’ used to be associated

with conflicts that have persisted for a long time, where

levels of violence are relatively low and communication

Inclusive mediation thus has a horizontal dimen-

sion, ensuring the representation of all major sta-

keholders at the table, and a vertical dimension,

promoting the participation of broad sectors of

society going beyond military actors.17

»

17) Corinne von Burg, On Inclusivity: The Role of Norms in International Peace Mediation, Essential, Bern: swiss-

peace, March 2015.

18) The author is indebted to Julian Thomas Hottinger for

drawing his attention to this point.

19) On national dialogues, see Berghof in cooperation

with swisspeace, National Dialogue Handbook, Berlin:

Berghof, February 2017.

as mediation is more nationally led, international

actors branch out and take on a broader range of

roles going beyond direct mediation.

»

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt1503|2017

between sides is intact, but a settlement is nonetheless

impossible. This is because, in the words of I. William

Zartman, there is no “mutually hurting stalemate”20: at

least one party evaluates the benefits of continuing con-

flict as being higher than the benefits of a potential peace

settlement. Mediation often still takes place in these con-

texts, but mediators are confined to conflict manage-

ment rather than resolution. The processes run by the

OSCE dealing with conflicts in Moldova, Nagorno-Kara-

bakh, and Georgia are cases in point, as are the UN-led

processes dealing with Cyprus and Western Sahara.

Developments in recent years have led to the emer-

gence of a new generation of protracted conflicts, which

involve a highly complex set of actors, but could prove to

be just as hard to resolve as the first generation. These

are conflicts such as those in South Sudan, Libya, Syria,

or Yemen, which feature a highly complex set of over-

lapping geopolitical, national and local interests. Sec-

ond-generation protracted conflicts typically include a

large and constantly shifting number of actors on the

battlefield, conflating political and criminal motivations.

Years of warfare have changed the economic, social

and political structures so that violence tends to perpet-

uate itself. Mediators have a very difficult task in these

contexts. On the one hand, the massive violence and

displacement produced by these conflicts puts pres-

sure on them, and especially on their mandate givers, to

deliver results and bring violence to a halt. On the other

hand, the multitude of actors and competing geopolit-

ical interests make it practically impossible to come to

a mediated settlement. Moreover, the parties often mis-

use mediation for tactical purposes, consolidating their

gains on the battlefield and gaining legitimacy as an

interlocutor for the international community.

9. Expansion of Private Mediation

Private mediation has been on the rise in recent years.

This primarily concerns the activities carried out by spe-

cialized mediation NGOs, but also by individuals such

as former US president Jimmy Carter. Private media-

tors today operate around the globe and are present in

almost all peace processes, often working in partnership

with states and international organizations. That private

mediators have acquired such an important role has to

do with what the director of the Centre for Humanitarian

Dialogue David Harland identifies as the flaws of cur-

rent diplomacy, which “is excessively wedded to the

interactions between states at a time when fewer and

fewer conflicts can be resolved exclusively within that

matrix.”21 Private mediators thus engage in contexts,

which are not yet on the radar or which are sensitive for

states; they work at the local level often neglected by

official actors; and they talk to ‘proscribed’ groups which

governments face difficulties engaging with for political

and sometimes legal reasons.22 This role is particularly

important in the above-mentioned second-generation

protracted conflicts. The expansion of private mediation

is also related to professionalization trends. As medi-

ation processes become more complex and special-

ized, mediation NGOs, some of whose staff numbers far

exceed that of mediation structures in foreign ministries

and international organizations, provide much needed

knowledge and expertise.

10. Peacemaking 2.0

Technological developments have had an impact on

peace mediation. As the Internet increasingly relies on

user-generated content – so-called Internet 2.0 – so do

peace processes. The spread of social media means

that it has become more difficult to keep mediation con-

fidential, but it has also created new opportunities for

communication. Narratives about peace processes are

shaped as negotiations are ongoing, by those who sup-

port peacemaking and those seeking to undermine a

negotiated settlement. As mediation processes increas-

ingly take place in the public space, the need for medi-

ators and parties to reach out to the public has grown.

This does not mean that mediators should give updates

about negotiations on their Facebook accounts. How-

ever, it does mean that mediation teams and parties

have to take communication more seriously and that

they should think about alternatives to traditional media

engagements. They need to be able to explain to dif-

ferent audiences, including parties’ constituents, local

and international civil society, and key states, why they

engage in negotiations and, once an agreement is

reached, how the agreement benefits society. As the

20) I. William Zartman, Ripe for Resolution, New York:

Oxford University Press, 1985.

21) David Harland, ‘War Is Back’, Horizons, Spring 2016,

no. 7, pp. 224-234, at p. 232.

22) Véronique Dudouet, Mediating Peace with Proscribed Groups, USIP Special Report, Washington DC: USIP, May

2010. See also Jonathan Powell, Talking to Terrorists: How to End Armed Conflicts, London: The Bodley Head, 2014.

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt 1513|2017

3. Professionalisierung. Die Friedensmediation ist

zum Beruf geworden. Es gibt mehr Mediationsorganisa-

tionen, professionelle Netzwerke und Ausbildungskurse

sowie Bemühungen, Normen für effektive internationale

Mediation zu definieren.

4. Geopolitik und „Transaktionsdiplomatie“. Rivali-

täten zwischen den Grossmächten haben in den letz-

ten Jahren auf Kosten internationaler Zusammenarbeit

zugenommen. In diesem Zusammenhang besteht die

Gefahr, dass strukturierte und international legitimierte

Mediationsprozesse von kurzfristiger Machtdiplomatie

usurpiert werden.

5. Inklusivität: Ja oder nein? Zunehmend wird aner-

kannt, dass nicht nur Gewaltakteure, sondern auch

die Zivilbevölkerung, insbesondere auch Frauen, in

Friedens prozessen mitreden sollen. Jedoch hat sich

diese Entwicklung noch nicht in der tatsächlichen

Friedensmediationspraxis durchgesetzt. Internationale

Mediation bleibt auf die Hauptkonfliktparteien fokussiert.

6. Differenzierungen der Formate. Während früher

umfassende Friedensabkommen in jahrelangen Ver-

handlungen erarbeitet wurden (z.B. das Friedensabkom-

men im Sudan im Jahr 2005), geht der Trend heute hin

zu Teilabkommen für einzelne Regionen oder temporäre

Waffenruhen, wie dies z.B. in Syrien zurzeit der Fall ist.

7. Internationale Mediatoren unerwünscht. In man-

chen Ländern wird das Engagement internationaler

MediatorInnen als Einmischung gesehen. Das Gewicht

nationaler Akteure in Friedensprozessen nimmt deshalb

zu, während die internationale Gemeinschaft vermehrt

unterstützende Aufgaben einnimmt (wie z.B. in Kolum-

bien und Myanmar).

8. Langwierige Konflikte der zweiten Generation.

In Moldawien, Berg-Karabach, Georgien, Zypern und

Westsahara finden Konflikte statt, die seit Jahrzehnten

ungelöst sind, aber die Gewalt zumindest eingedämmt

werden konnte. Mediatoren haben es heute vermehrt mit

langwierigen Konflikten einer zweiten Generation zu tun,

wie z.B. im Südsudan, Libyen, Syrien oder Jemen. Diese

Kontexte sind gekennzeichnet durch extreme Gewalt

und durch eine äusserst komplexe Interessenslage auf

geopolitischer, nationaler und lokaler Ebene, welche für

internationale Mediation kaum Lösungsansätze bietet.

9. Ausweitung privater Mediationsinitiativen. In vielen

Kontexten sind staatlichen Akteuren Grenzen gesetzt,

October 2016 referendum in Colombia illustrates, a fail-

ure to do so leaves the field to opponents of negotiations

and risks undermining a peace process.

Conclusion: The Paradox of Peace Mediation

The developments covered in this article should by

no means suggest a coherent ‘trend’ of where peace

mediation is going. To the contrary, they show a mul-

ti-layered and often paradoxical evolution. There is a

push to make peace mediation more professional, prin-

cipled and structured, but at the same time, it is more

fragmented and increasingly taken over by geopoliti-

cal dynamics and the particular interests of states blur-

ring the line between mediation and power diplomacy.

The paradox of peace mediation thus reflects the cur-

rent state of the world, where international frameworks of

cooperation are increasingly challenged, with instability

and uncertainty resulting from it.

Zusammenfassung

Zehn Trends in der Friedensmediation

Noch vor wenigen Jahren schienen Konflikte stetig

abzunehmen, der Harvard-Professor Steven Pinker

sprach 2011 gar von der „friedlichsten Epoche der Men-

schheitsgeschichte“. Heute hat der Trend gedreht. Neue

Kon flikte (z.B. in Syrien, Libyen, Jemen, Ukraine und

Südsudan) hatten einen drastischen Anstieg der Kriegs-

toten und Vertriebenen zur Folge. Dazu kommt, dass

Terrorismus weltweit zu einem Unsicherheitsempfinden

beiträgt. In diesem veränderten Umfeld hat sich auch die

Praxis der Friedensmediation entwickelt: Staaten und

internationale Organisationen haben ihre Kapazitäten

vergrössert und vermehrt sind nichtstaatliche Akteure

als Media toren aktiv. Der Autor identifiziert zehn Trends,

welche die gegenwärtige Praxis kennzeichnen:

1. Zunahme von Nachfrage und Angebot. Aufgrund

neuer Konflikte ist die Nachfrage nach internationaler

Mediation gestiegen. Gleichzeitig wurde das Angebot

ausgeweitet: UNO, EU, Afrikanische Union sowie staat-

liche und nichtstaatliche Akteure haben ihre Media-

tions-Strukturen ausgebaut.

2. Wettbewerb und Koordination. Das Wachstum der

Friedensmediation hat zur Folge, dass sich ein Wettbe-

werb unter den Anbietern entwickelt hat, und die Koor-

dination verschiedener Initiativen zur zentralen Heraus-

forderung geworden ist.

Perspektive|Schwerpunkt1523|2017

was zu einer Zunahme privater Mediationsinitiativen

geführt hat. Dazu gehören Aktivitäten von spezialisierten

NGOs wie dem HD Centre in Genf sowie das Engage-

ment bekannter Persönlichkeiten wie Präsident Jimmy

Carter.

10. Friedensbildung 2.0. Friedensmediation wird zuneh-

mend durch technologische Entwicklungen geprägt.

Internet und soziale Medien machen vertrauliche Ver-

handlungen praktisch unmöglich, gleichzeitig sind neue

Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten entstanden. Die Ableh-

nung des letztjährigen Referendums über das Friedens-

abkommen in Kolumbien verdeutlicht die Wichtig-

keit, die breite Bevölkerung über Friedensprozesse zu

informieren.

Diese 10 Trends weisen teilweise auf paradoxe Entwick-

lungen hin. Einerseits haben Angebot und Qualität der

Friedensmediation zugenommen, andererseits lässt

Kontakt

Dr. David Lanz is the head of the Mediation Program at the Swiss Peace Foundation swisspeace. He holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Basel. His thesis examines the role of norms in internati-onal interventions in armed conflicts. David.Lanz@swisspeace.chwww.swisspeace.ch

sich eine Vermischung mit Machtdiplomatie erkennen.

Gerade dies kann als Spiegel der gegenwärtigen welt-

politischen Situation angesehen werden.

Deutsch zusammengefasst von Noa Zanolli

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