Why is mediation failing to resolve so many armed conflicts today?

Registration link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tm6xoKv5QieWOCHTCK-4Lw

Participants (see more detailed bios below):

Katia Papagianni: Director of Policy and Mediation Support, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) in Geneva

Neha Sanghrajka: Negotiator and mediator with more than 17 years of experience in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and mediation

Matt Waldman: Senior Adviser at the European Institute of Peace; Expert Adviser and Facilitator at the European Leadership Network; and Research Associate of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University.

Betty Bigombe: Former Senior Director ‘Fragility, Conflict and Violence’ at the World Bank; Ugandan Special Envoy to the South Sudan peace process

Paul Dziatkowiec (moderator): Director for Mediation and Peace Support at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP); former senior Australian diplomat; Fellow of the Oxford Global Society

Description

In recent decades the conflict landscape appears to have changed markedly. Geopolitics are back; there has been an uptick in intra- and inter-state conflicts; there are more and more proxy wars and armed non-state actors; and the multilateral system (including the UN) is less integral to peacemaking efforts than it once was. Even more concerning, the sheer number and scale of armed conflicts has ballooned to a level not seen for decades. What does this say about the practice of mediation – is it an outdated tool? Is it simply powerless in countering the resurgence of a ‘might makes right’ mantra? Or does it merely need rethinking and refining to make it fit for purpose?

Bios of participants:

Paul Dziatkowiec is Director for Mediation and Peace Support at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). He is an experienced diplomat and conflict mediator. Following his diplomatic career, Paul joined the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) in Geneva. At HD Paul was involved in mediation in diverse conflict settings including Nigeria, Myanmar, Thailand and Ukraine. He led HD’s Ukraine program for six years. For five years Paul managed the Oslo Forum, the pre-eminent global gathering for conflict mediation.

Katia Papagianni is Director for Mediation Support and Policy at the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre). In that capacity, she has advised HD mediation teams and deployed to support operationally all over the world. Katia has also been seconded by the HD Centre to the team of the UN Special Adviser on Yemen as an expert on national dialogue processes. Prior to joining the HD Centre, she worked in Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq. Katia’s work focuses on mediation process design, political transitions, national dialogue and constitution-making processes.

Neha Sanghrajka is a negotiator, mediator, and author with over 17 years’ experience in high-stakes negotiations, including working for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Kenya on the 2007 electoral crisis and with the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Mozambique as a mediator in the definitive Mozambican peace accord. She is currently a fellow at Harvard University and a Senior Advisor for UNOPS. Neha is on the board of the Kofi Annan Foundation, the Berghof Foundation and has worked with the HD Centre, the UN, and the AU. She is a founding member of Women Mediators across the Commonwealth and holds degrees in Law and International Relations.

Matt Waldman has previously served as a special adviser to the United Nations envoys for Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, and has conducted mediation and facilitation work with several international organisations. He has undertaken research on armed conflict, foreign policymaking and psychology in international mediation as a fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Centre, Harvard’s Law School, Tufts’ Fletcher School, and Clare College, Cambridge University. Matt is the author of ‘Peacemaking in Trouble: Expert Perspectives on Flaws, Deficiencies and Potential in the Field of International Mediation’.

Betty Bigombe is a Ugandan national, has played a key role in conflict resolution in Africa. She led the peace and humanitarian efforts in northern Uganda, first in the 1990s as Minister of State for Northern Uganda and again as chief mediator to the conflict in the mid-2000s. She served as Senior Director ‘Fragility, Conflict and Violence’ at the World Bank. She has been a visiting scholar at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, the Woodrow Wilson Center and a Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, consulting on the impact of war and violence.