#RogerMacGinty interviewed 30 senior #mediators and #peacemakers and asked them: What works? He was interested in mediation effectiveness.
Here is the summary report
https://lnkd.in/dTrp8YZW
Some familiar themes:
?? All of the interviewees mentioned the importance of long-term engagement and having Track 1.5 networks in place. These networks are places for difficult future-oriented conversations, seeding ideas, and having lines of communication for when the time is right.
?? Interviewees also stressed the importance of having a proper conflict analysis: think then act. This also meant long-term familiarity with a context. A key to good conflict analysis was recognising the actual situation - not the situation you want.
?? There was much discussion of a changing geopolitical context. Conflicts don't seem to end the ways they did in the 1990s and early 2000s with comprehensive peace accords. We are in a different era and the field of peacemaking is crowded with "new" actors.
?? There was also tension between peacemaking and peacebuilding - or working on conflict and working in conflict. For some, there was too much 'spinning wheels' and not enough creativity, bravery and dealing with the primary conflict actors themselves.
