Conflict Mediation: People behind the Process

The US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will be shuttling back and forth to Israel and West Bank for the indirect peace talks in the Middle East. He is one of the more popular conflict mediators nowadays. He is tasked to resume peace talks between Israel and Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Conflict mediation is a complex task. Very few people are up to the challenge of getting into the fray between two warring parties who have deep-seated and historical anger and aversion towards the other party.

Let us take a look at the complex case of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan has a historically interesting and complex story, although the story has yet to reach culmination. Both countries are claiming the disputed region, while Nagorno-Karabakh itself has declared independence from Azerbaijan and Armenia. Its independence has yet to be recognized by other states.

The Azerbaijan wanted its territorial integrity intact with Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia has interest in the region since majority of the population of Nagorno-Kabarakh region are Armenians. Other surrounding states and not so near state, such as, Turkey, Russia and United States, have interests too in the region for various and vested reasons. For one, oil wealth in the region makes the conflict more complicated and intense.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) lead by its Minsk group has been tasked to do the mediation efforts since 1992. Various approaches and plans have been proposed to try to settle the conflict.

A practitioner who was involved in the mediation processes talked about the lessons learned in the mediation efforts. It was a great opportunity for us to listen to a practitioner doing actual negotiation and mediation process. He mentioned about the mediators, at times, are the only ones who want to settle the conflict. The two parties involved in the conflict do look into each other’s eyes with mistrust or do not look at each other’s eyes at all. Oftentimes they are not prepared to the mediation efforts initiated by third-party or foreign entities. I could imagine how frustrating it must have been for mediators like him. But he did not touch on that personal side of him. I wondered where he got his motivation to pursue the mediation process in spite of the obstacles. He could have talked about his strong motivation to pursue mediation of these two stubborn sides.

I wonder what it is in for a mediator to undergo such stressful and dangerous process of peacebuilding through conflict mediation. Is it the challenge of the complexities of mediation? Is it the desire to end the violence that kills and destroys lives? Is it the prestige of being a mediator and pursuit of recognition of awards such as Nobel? I can only speculate, but what is it really?

Why some mediators are successful and some are not? I wish George Mitchell the best in his Middle East mission!