IV. Wiener Konferenz für Mediation 2006 "CULTURE MEETS CULTURE II" Das »neue« Unbehagen in der Kultur The role of mediation in international relations: „call for peaceful conflict resolutions in globalization“ Dr. Thomas R. Henschel, Direktor European School of Governance, Mediator, Ausbilder in Wirtschaftsmediation

1. european school of governance

2. culture meets culture
03.-06. Mail 2006, EUROAPHAUS WIEN
The role of mediation in international
relations:
„call for peaceful conflict resolutions in globalization“
Dr. Thomas R. Henschel
European School of Governance
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3. content


Democratization

Global society world and international conflicts

International conflicts and conflict prevention

Concepts of multilateral peace keeping

Mediation: a concept for international peace keeping

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Trends in Society and international relations
Conclusion and perspective

4. Trends in Society
People in agriculture
 Economic development and
prosperity:
50
45
48
40
1871: more than 50% in agriculture
35
2000: less than 3.2% in agriculture
25
30
20
15
10
 GDP
1830:
130.-€
~
3,2
5
0
2000:
~ 25.000.- €
1871
2000
GDP
25
thousands EUR
25
20
15
t
10
 Lifetime: doubled
 Better education and access to
information
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5
0
0,13
1830
2000

5. Trends in Society

Today’s elite has no longer the monopoly of
access to information - in the best case they have a
little advantage of time

The radical change of the social structure, the
revolution in the education and information sector has
initiated a change in government:
democratization
„The Democratic Revolution is the most important
trend at the end of the 20th century“
(Samuel Huntigton)
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6. Democratization
 Increasing welfare leads to growing demands
for democratic participation
 Globalization promotes democratization
 Welfare and development needs the
autonomic and innovative citizen, who
participates in decision making
Number of people in % living in democratic societies
70
58
60
65
50
40
30
22
20
10
0
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0
1900
1940
1980
2001

7. The global society world
 The emerging of the „society world“ (E.-O. Czempiel)
has almost eliminated the classical international war
between states
 In 2001 the UN registered 105 violent conflicts and wars,
all of them „new wars“ (intra-state-wars)
 Main issue of those conflicts:
political and economic Participation
 Challenge of the 21th century:
how to deal with these conflicts in an alternative
and non-violent way that answers the demand for
participation?
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8. International conflict and conflict
prevention
 1945: United Nations
 Multilateralism institutionalized
 Consensus building as a principle in international
politics and peace keeping
 Rule of international law and international
government under the control of the United Nations
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9. International conflict and conflict
prevention
crisis of classical crisis-management
 Collapse of security policy:
 The crisis in Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda made the collapse of the
classical crisis-management obvious
 Deadly conflicts, failed states, civil war, violence of human rights, genocide –
the international community seemed to be almost helpless
 A massive conceptional gap in security and peace policy
 This became even more true after 9/11
 Spending of Resources:
 millions of Dollar where spent for re-active crisis management (military forces,
humanitarian aid, recovery programs)
 Development policy became a repair workshop
The international community is in need of a concept
for maintaining security in the new emerging world order
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10. International conflict and conflict prevention
search for new concepts of constructive conflict management
 Prevention before a deadly conflict and Consolidation after
such a conflict became important, conceptional aspects for new
forms of appropriate, effective and cheaper security strategies
 Development policy aspects and security aspects (peace
building) merged to the new concept of peace-consolidation
(UN/OSCE)
Development Policy
Security Policy
Peace Consolidation
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11. Concepts of multilateral peace keeping
Peace Consolidation (UN / OSCE)
A systematic and long-term oriented process to deal with the
sources of violent conflicts and to build the framework, the
institutions and structures for a society to live in together in
peace
Three phases of Peace Consolidation (UN /
OSCE)
III.
I.
Preventing rebirth of conflict Preventing deadly conflicts
II.
Preventing escalation
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12. International conflict and conflict
prevention
a change in paradigm
A change in paradigm in Security Policy stresses
the “culture of Prevention” (Carnegie
Commission 1997) and pledges for a coherent
conflict prevention strategy development (UN 1/2001)
“Prevention is the only appropriate security
policy.”
(Ernst-Otto Czempiel)
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13. Concepts of multilateral peace keeping
The current model of peace Consolidation:
Peace
Consolidation
Experts:
Operative Prevention
Structural prevention
• Early warning and intervention
• Preventive diplomacy
• Economic measures (Sanctions, Benefits)
• Enforcement measures
• Security (in and between states)
• Well-Being (i.e. social justice,
political participations, sustainable
Development)
• Rule of law and just society
(in and between states)
short term
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mid term
long term

14. Concepts of multilateral peace keeping
 Current model of UN and OSCE:
 Experts are analyzing the conflict, its structure etc.
and developing strategies for peace building
 Experts are doing the job and they are trying to bring
peace to the people
A good model for de-escalation of deadly conflicts by
force,
but
also the best model for a sustainable peace building?
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15. Problems of the current concept
 Peace Consolidation is basically seen as a technological
project concerning resources, technical support, capacities,
methods of external actors to act most effective according
to the operational needs on the ground
 Gap between early warning and early action
 Lack of co-ordination coherent approaches between state
and non-state actors
 One track classical diplomacy
 Almost non bottom-up information flow and network
 High-tech military warning systems not suited to the
prevailing of new wars
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16. Mediation: a concept for international
peace keeping


conflict owners and experts
 The conflict groups and partners are experts for
their problems and conflicts
 they could be experts for peace building

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Empowering civic society by empowering the
people
 Mediation is an approach that empowers the civil
society by empowering the people itself.
Mediation: an approved process approach and tool
 Mediation is an additional approved instrument for
sustainable peace building
 When people participate, it enhances the
acceptance of the result
 Sustainability is a result of the process itself

17. Mediation: a concept for international peace
keeping
How mediation could be useful
Mediation
supports the conflict parties in understanding their conflict:
Methods to stimulate the exchange about differences
Mapping the conflict by using visualization techniques
creates a room for the differences and for the mutual
acceptances of those differences
Helps the conflict parties to find optimal regulations for their
situations based on a better understanding of the interests
and needs of everybody involved in the conflict
Conducts the creation of a contract and ensures – if needed that a third party overlooks and guards the implementation
process
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18. Where mediation could make a
difference:
Phase I: Prevention:
 transferring preventive diplomacy into early
mediation processes (by professional
mediators and not diplomats, only)
 Support of early mediation approaches by
economic measurements (sanctions or
benefits)
Phase III: Sustainable Peace-building
 Establishing sustainable structures for peace
keeping through the participations of the
conflict parties in the strategy development
process
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19. Mediation: an instrument for all phases
and on all political levels in the process
of peace building
 Mediation could help to overcome structural gaps in the
current concept of peace building:
 Definition of Interest of the conflict parties, politicians etc.
 activation of resources (from non-action to effective action)
 Coherence building of actors in all fields of politics
 Better coherence and co-operation in foreign policy, security
and development policy in an complex and multilevel
environment (regional and national governments, international
organizations, NGO`s)
 Better co-operation of government and private sector
 Effective support oriented at the needs and interests of the
people on the ground
 Humanitarian assistance and development local capacities for
peace could be forstered and their capacity could be
strengthened
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20. Challenges for Mediation
In new wars the conflict parties are not so easy to
identify
Each intervention has its own advantages and risk
Lack of impact assessment tools and methodology
International Organizations such as EU, UN or states
such as the US or India have their own agenda and
interests
Working without a concept could be after all not such a
bad concept (process more import than concepts)
Demands long term stay on the ground
Requires a new self-consciousness of Mediation
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Needs conflict sensibility (Ursula König)

21. Mediation
 UN and OSCE should promote the integration of
Mediation as a complementary instrument and
approach for conflict prevention
 Mediation supports the parties,
the responsibility for the content stays with the
conflict parties
 Mediation fosters the civic society by
empowering the people itself and giving them
back the responsibility for their conflicts and
conflict-resolution strategies
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22. Conclusion
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 Most important trend: democratization
 Democratization demands participation of the citizin
and a strong civic society
 Democratization and the growing global society has
ended the classical international war between
states
 Today deadly conflicts are civil wars and terrorist
acts
 The UN / OSCE model is an approved - however
imperfect it may be - instrument to de-escalate deadly
conflicts
 Peace building would profit from mediation in
three aspects:
Early prevention (preventive mediation etc.)I
Continuous prevention (developing sustainable
structures and regulations for peace building and
keeping)
Mediation is a key resource for all aspects of

23. Perspective
In a more and more complex and dynamic world, in
which one men could destroy the whole world, we need
mediation as a sufficient approach and tool to deal in a
peaceful and participative way with international
conflicts.
An approach that empowers the civil society by
empowering participation and the citizens itself.
An approach that is dialog and process orientated and
leaves the responsibility with the people.
Within the states and between the states.
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24. Contact
Dr. Thomas R. Henschel
European School of Governance, Berlin
Im Palais am Festungsgraben
Am Festungsgraben 1
10117 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 20 61 62 57
FAX: +49 (0)30 20 61 62 92
Email: henschel@eusg.de
www.eusg.de
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