 | Mediators Without Borders: A Proposal to Resolve Political Conflicts
This essay gives guidelines for mediators who are working in cultures different from their own. It explains the nature of the problem such mediators face, gives strategies for addressing the problem and then outlines a "twelve-step program" for increasing the capacity of hostile communities to prevent, resolve, and recover from violent conflicts. |
| Convening Processes
Conflict interventions usually begin with a convening process, in which disputants come together with a third party to discuss the conflict and decide on a course of action. This essay outlines strategies for doing a conflict assessment, identifying and recruiting participants, obtaining resources, and designing the process. |
| Ripeness-Promoting Strategies
A conflict is said to be ripe once both parties realize they cannot win, and the conflict is costing them too much to continue. However, if the parties have not yet reached that stage, steps can be taken to encourage them to consider negotiating. |
| Ground Rules
Ground rules are formally agreed on standards of conduct that govern third-party processes. They cover the behavior of the disputants, the role or behavior of any third party, the methods or process to be used, and/or the substance of the discussions. |
| Sequencing Strategies and Tactics
Some conflicts are so complex that it is unrealistic to try to resolve the whole thing at once. In these cases, interveners can divide the immediate dispute into a more manageable series of sub-disputes. They can then address the easiest issues first and save the harder ones for later. An alternative approach does the hardest one(s) first. This essay discusses different approaches to sequencing. |
| Reframing
Bernard Mayer wrote, "The art of reframing is to maintain the conflict in all its richness but to help people look at it in a more open-minded and hopeful way." |
| Option Identification
Once the parties have identified the issues under contention, they should systematically list all options that they see available to them for advancing their interests. Option identification helps parties develop creative, realistic solutions to their conflict. |
| Focusing on Commonalities
Andrew Masondo wrote, "Understand the differences; act on the commonalities." This essay examines how that can be done. |
| Caucus
Caucuses are meetings that mediators hold separately with each side of a dispute. They can be called by the mediator or by one of the parties to work out problems that occur during the mediation process. Some mediators use them extensively, while others do not use them at all. |
| Reality Testing
Parties often have wildly unrealistic expectations. They tend to overestimate what they can accomplish and underestimate how much suffering the conflict will cause. |
| Consensus Building
Consensus building is used to settle conflicts that involve multiple parties and complicated issues. The approach seeks to transform adversarial confrontations into a cooperative search for information and solutions that meet all parties' interests and needs. |
| Costing
Costing is the process of assessing the costs and benefits of a particular action -- not only in monetary terms, but in terms of time, resources, emotional energy, and other intangible effects on people's lives. |
| Policy Dialogue
Policy dialogues are convened to address major public policy disputes. Often used to constructively confront complex environmental conflicts, policy dialogues bring representatives of opposing groups together to open up discussion, improve mutual understanding, and assess the degree of consensus and controversy that exists. |
| Shuttle Diplomacy
When emotions run too high to bring disputants together in the same room (or even the same country,) shuttle diplomacy can be used to carry messages back and forth. This essay discusses when and how this should be done. |
| Action-Forcing Mechanisms
Deadlines can be very useful. They can force disputants to stop stalling and move forward in a negotiation. However, if these deadlines are too soon, they can lead to poor decisions. |
| Trust in Mediation
Alan Gold harped on the importance of trust in mediation when he wrote, "The key word is 'trust.' Without it, you're dead. Without it, stay home!" This essay explains why trust is so important in mediation and introduces trust-building strategies. |
| Codes of Conduct for Intervenors
Those working in conflict resolution face a variety of complex ethical questions. Codes of conduct are guidelines governing the way dispute resolution practitioners deal with these issues. |
