Using Mediation to Manage and Resolve Contemporary and Political Conflicts

On July 2011, the Universal Congress of United Nations consistently approved a solution that reaffirmed the commitment of the global community to firming the responsibility of global mediation on resolution and prevention of conflict. Because arbitration is now openly articulated in item 33 of section six of United Nation agreement, this solution was a nod of the vital part arbitration plays in the present-day resolve of conflict. Proof provisions this proposal. Arbitration has happened in 70% of wholly battles from 1940 also the likelihood of a concord accord being summarized is more probable when intermediaries of third parties are existing.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Beardsley, K. (2017) found that the third party reputation persuades the calculus of decision making of disputants. An arbitrator who has met a treaty in all of the fortified battles which it has earlier been included has an almost nineteenth percent huger likelihood of getting accepted as a mediator than just a third-party with no earlier success. (Greig and Regan, 2008). Shortly, Beardsley, K. (2017), though underlining battle period instead of bereavements of battles, discover a link amid the conflicts cost as well as the conflict willingness revelries to admit conciliation. They further discover that peacemakers thru a latent for achievement are further probable being believed. This conveys that Regan and Greig (2008), merely since Beardsley, K. (2017), find their study regarding the notion which a vital precondition for mediations is a view through the opponents, which mediated results is desirable for prolonged battling as well as an escape is probable.

Beardsley (2013) has a dissimilar accept concerning warning motives of fighting revelries to admit conciliation. Though the author distinguishes that fighting revelries may be encouraged to take reconciliation through a need for the assumption of concord accord. The author posits that mediation is not the final objective of arbitration. Getting included in arbitration offers combatants with time to unite as well as reorganize that can enable them to accept the battleground from the tougher site also transpire thru a suitable accord (Bearsley, 2013). He, therefore, sets forward many notional notions why arbitration may happen despite lack of need amongst the battle parties to make concord.

Bercovitch and Gartner (2014) posit that an arbitrator may play a pivotal responsibility in handling this problem because the existence of mediator enables the opponents to interrelate at a comparatively low standard of human encouragement to portray why parties of conflicts take mediation. Bercovitch and Gartner (2014) therefore emphasize aspects which add to the violence persistence as well as why introducing mediation is very problematic. In this logic, Sisk, T. (2016), further plugs out that a concept of rational like personal interest as a variable of explanatory for the start of mediation has got its bounds because it oversees the dynamics of psychology core armed battles.

According to Smith and Stam (2013), they explain that ground of conflicts resolution efforts linked to any conflict. They convey that on one influence, building trust among the opposing teams in equipped battles is challenging, because of both parties of the battle notion, normally thru a long supporting history confirmation, which the opponent is set on producing them damage (Smith and Stam, 2013). This distrust standard makes battle parties hesitant to emerge included in the process of mediation. However, the trust may not be created without participating in peace conversations.

The Value of Early Mediation in Equal Opportunity Complainants is an article by Major Thomas. Thomas' work talks about the importance of mediation in general. It defines mediation and also shows the processes of mediation. This article acts as an introductory piece regarding mediation issues and what mediation entails. Some of the advantages of mediation in the book are suggested to be a reduction in costs and time by the time a conflict is resolved. The book also gives different examples of real-life disputes and how they are resolved through mediation. This book will give general insights regarding the advantages of mediation in political conflicts while guiding the researcher on the mediation process.

Mediation And It's Use In The Legal Process by Judy Gutman talks about how conflicts are universal and cannot be avoided. This literature uses a different approach as it gives different justice models and mediation is one of the models. Gutmans' work gives an insight into Australia's mediation processes in particular and shows how it's an alternative form of Justice. The article is pro-mediation giving some advantages to be less lengthy processes, parties are satisfied with the outcomes and fewer costs as seen in the court processes. It gives background information to mediation historically just like the literature by Thomas. According to Judy mediation is an integral part of the legal system and need to be used more. This piece shows the advantages of opting for mediation, in general, to resolve conflicts and just like Thomas; it shows how political issues can be resolved through mediation.

Ten years after the turn of the century, the pressure was mounting on the United Nations to come up with a means of managing the increasing number of conflicts between many countries all over the world. This pressure resulted in the adoption of additional measures that would help control and reduce the number of disputes that required formal settling. As a result, the United Nations introduced the upheld the significance of mediation in the prevention and management of international political conflict in June 2011 (United Nation's General Assembly, 2011). Mediation had previously been articulated in chapter 6 of the UN charter, but the new policies served to strengthen its effectiveness and reliability as a means of actual conflict resolutions between countries that were experiencing political differences and disagreements at the time and in the future. After World War II, the severely divide globe needed urgent reconciliation to move forward and heal from the devastating and endless warring.

Treaties and agreements were being made, and political turmoil was reducing at an impressive rate thanks to the use of mediation by third-party countries that were neutral to the matters at hand. The probability of a treaty or peace agreement materializing was six times more likely to come to pass when the mediators were in the picture (Bercvitch and Gartner, 2015).International mediation has become a subject of extensive analysis and many books, and research articles are being penned about it on a daily basis. There has been a rapid increase in the literature touching on the topic since the mid 50's, and the research seems to increase in pace and aggression (Wall And Green, 2013). To better understand the importance of international mediation in the resolution and management of contemporary political conflict, one needs to understand the different ways in which it is carried out as well as the conditions that necessitate its use according to various researchers. The results that come from different processes of mediation shall also be looked into to ascertain as to whether they constitute an effective and efficient means of resolving political conflict.

Necessity

There are several pieces of research touching on the situations or factors that lead to the adoption of international mediation as a means of conflict resolution. The first factor is commonly referred to as the mutual hurting stalemate. This term is defined as an impasse in which both parties feel that it is not possible to benefit from a victory of any kind (Zartman, 2015). According to this research, the presence of the impasse leaves the battling parties with no choice but to sit down and negotiate about the most suitable way to resolve their conflict. In simpler terms, the countries at war with each other reach a point where they realize that more war would lead to a possibly irreparable effect and opt for peaceful mediation and peace (Zartman et al. 2015). The mutually hurting stalemate ideology is support by another research carried out in six other conflicts in Africa. Through the intervention of a mediating party each the two countries are more to sacrificially compromise on some issues they wouldn't have typically.

More research reveals that the other factor that leads to the need for mediation is the height of conflict intensity (Beardsley, 2011). The magnitude of conflict is usually escalated when the issue at hand has an ethnic connotation to it. The self-interest of the warring parties comes into play in such instances hence leading to the need for mediation to alleviate or entirely stop further suffering and pain experienced by both parties at the same time. Research to determine as to whether casualty levels determine the intensity of conflicts show scanty evidence and have been consequently rubbished (Greig and Reagan, 2014). Duration, nonetheless, can categorically show the depth of a battle. According to Greig and Reagan, many conflicting countries tend to ignore and reject the mediation way of conflict resolution at the start of the wars or conflicts. However as the battle intensifies and more damage is done over a more extended period, both parties begin to be more receptive to the idea ( Greig and Reagan, 2014). The research by Greig and Reagan also emphasizes the importance of the reputation f the mediating party in the agreement or rejection of an invite to mediation.

Importance

The effects of mediation are far-reaching and are the primary motivation for any two warring parties to hold the negotiation to conclude their protracted standing conflict. Both the long term and short term effects and results of different historical mediations throughout the world have been analyzed by researchers to assess the importance of the procedure as a means of controlling contemporary conflicts. According to a recent study by Beardsley, mediation is one of the few methods of conflict resolution that bring about long-lasting solutions and consequent peace between the warring countries (Beardsley 2011). He illustrates that through keen assessment of historical data on the long-term effects of the mediation process, one can see that clearly, mediation is the most efficient way to solve conflicts between warring countries.

This research is in tandem with additional research by Werner And Yuen, who demonstrated that the need for flexible negotiation methods do help in alleviating the chances of war breaking out again after treaties have been made (Werner and Yuen 2015). Their research suggests that when forceful negotiation and conclusion of conflict is used to manage international warfare, there high chances that the warring parties will not exhaustively discuss certain crucial parts of contention and when the attention of the pressurizing factor is gone, the two countries are very likely to be at war again. The second war might even be worse than the initial one since both parties are bitterer about the points of contention and feel betrayed by their counterparts. The results of subsequent wars are far more devastating than the initial wars and therefore mean that the use of mediation is the most favorable way to manage and resolve contemporary conflicts. To further prove that their research was credible the two researchers employed a simple but crucial hazard model that examined the effects of the forceful ceasefire in some conflicts. The findings depicted immediate eruption of violent warfare after the pressure of ceasefire was withdrawn.

Additional research by Carment et al. shows that indeed mediation is the most comprehensiv...