Mediation and Foreign Policy

Abstract

Although mediation of international conflicts plays an important role in international relations, the theoretical study of mediation is not well integrated into studies of international politics. Analyses of international mediation often treat it as an autonomous activity that is impacted by politics but is not part of politics. This chapter offers a different approach, presenting mediation from a political perspective, which views it as part of foreign policy . The term foreign policy is used here in the sense of a purposive strategic behavior, a “behavior motivated by a conscious calculation of advantages” (Schelling 1963:4). This premise is obviously a simplifying, but useful one, because it provides us with a framework for understanding, comparing, and evaluating state behavior. The discussion that follows focuses only on a segment of the broad field of international mediation, examining only one actor in the drama—states performing the role of mediator. It calls attention to domestic and foreign policy considerations that shape the mediating state's behavior, and suggests directions for research into the subject. I start with a few comments about a common approach to the study of mediation and then present an alternative approach that views mediation as part of foreign policy. Given this political framework, I discuss three issues that seem to reflect interesting links between domestic and international concerns: (1) the perception of mediation as possessing a moral dimension, (2) the domestic and international influences shaping mediators' strategies, and (3) criteria for evaluating mediation. Mediation theory initially developed with reference to conflicts within states—such as arise within families, within communities, in labor relations, or between business firms. Much of the literature on mediation is written with reference to a prescriptive framework on how third parties need to act to induce disputants to abandon their confrontational behavior toward each other. Theoretical work in …