scholarly journals How mediator leadership transitions influence mediation effectiveness

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Mehrl ◽  
Tobias Böhmelt

Little is known about how transitions in the government of mediators affect conflict dynamics and resolution. To address this shortcoming, we study executive turnovers of mediators during ongoing interventions in civil war. Mediation effectiveness is largely driven by (trustworthy) information provision and sharing. Changes in mediators’ leaderships have the potential to undermine this, lowering mediation performance. Using data on civil conflicts in 1946–2017, we find robust support for this argument. This research sheds light on a previously neglected factor in conflict resolution that is of particular interest to practitioners and policymakers.

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292097691
Author(s):  
Joe Clare ◽  
Vesna Danilovic

What factors influence third parties to intervene in civil wars? Our focus on major powers, which are disproportionately more likely than other states to intervene in civil conflicts, directs us to the factors that uniquely shape their interests. While our study does not rule out humanitarian interventions by collective security international institutions and individual states, we do not find that humanitarian concerns motivate major powers. We argue and demonstrate that their decisions to intervene are principally motivated by their drive to establish, consolidate, or expand influence in different geopolitical regions. Past research with the strategic approach stressed the importance of an intervener’s prior ties with a civil war state for this decision. Though important, we show the effect of these ties is subordinate to other factors. In our argument, their role is primarily relevant for determining whether an intervener will be on the side of the government or opposition. The key issue of whether major powers are likely to intervene in the first place, however, is contingent on how much the entire region is strategically relevant to warrant intervention. The empirical analysis of civil war interventions over nearly fifty years lends strong support to our theoretical expectations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Böhmelt

This article disaggregates coalitions of third-party mediators and examines their effectiveness in interventions. First, it is argued that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the size of a mediating coalition and mediation effectiveness. Secondly, mediators sharing a history of conflict and distrust will transfer their past relationships to a mediation attempt, making it less effective. Consequently, states sharing friendly and co-operative ties with each other are more successful in managing conflicts. Finally, a coalition of mediators that is largely democratic should be more effective due to a shared culture of peaceful conflict resolution, inclusivity and increased communication flows. The empirical analysis using data from the Issues Correlates of War Project for 1965–2000 largely provides support for the theory.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Júlia Palik

How does interstate rivals’ intervention in a third-party civil war impact conflict duration and outcome in that country? More specifically, (1) how do interstate rivals engage in third party civil conflicts and (2) how do conflict parties attract, utilize, and sustain the external support they receive from their supporters? I answer these questions by comparing Saudi Arabia and Iran’s intervention in two distinct conflicts in Yemen. This dissertation applies a qualitative case study method and selects two within-case methods: structured-focused comparison and process tracing. In the structured-focused comparison, I compare the support Saudi Arabia and Iran has provided to the Government of Yemen (GoY) and the Houthis respectively, differentiating between military and non-military types of support. I compare these during the Saada wars (2004-2010) and in the current internationalized civil war (2014-2018). To ensure the validity of my causal inferences I triangulate data from three sources: the development of a novel mediation and ceasefire dataset1 (1), semi-structured in-depth elite-interviews2 (2), and document reviews (3). This dissertation develops a mechanism-focused analytical framework that integrates both rivalry and civil war dynamics to explain civil war duration and outcome. I build on five distinct literatures (strategic rivalry, civil war studies, third-party intervention in civil wars, mediation, and rebel governance) and complement them with the literature on Middle East Area Studies. In the analytical framework first, I look at the inter-state dimension and propose that rivals’ initial decision to intervene and their subsequent decisions to remain engaged in third-party civil wars are two distinct processes. Rivals seek to inflict costs on their counterparts, but at the same time they seek to avoid direct confrontation. Their cognitive rigidities lock them in their own conflicts and give rise to the mechanism of conflict integration in third-party conflicts. Besides interveners, I also take into account domestic dynamics and examine civil war conflict parties’ capacity to impact rivals by keeping them engaged in their conflict through the mechanism of rivalry instrumentalization. The external and internal perspectives are reinforcing each other and create networked interdependencies. With this two-dimensional logic, I move beyond the conventional framework of proxy wars.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37
Author(s):  
Mourad Mansour ◽  
Alhassan G Mumuni

AbstractBeginning with the establishment of a Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities’ (SCTA) in 2000, there have been official attempts by the government of Saudi Arabia to encourage domestic tourism in order to tap into the huge amounts that Saudis spend annually on vacations. This paper examines the motivations and attitudes of consumers toward tourism destinations and activities within the country (domestic tourism). Using data collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire, the study finds that familiarity and trust of the local environment, perceptions of the safer domestic environment, and limitations imposed by respondents’ vacation timing are the primary motives for choosing to spend their vacations locally, while lack of quality domestic tourist sites and services (including entertainment facilities), lack of tourism information, insufficient tourism organization services, and the harsh local environmental conditions during summer are factors that ‘push’ people from spending the vacations locally. Attitudes toward domestic tourism are generally negative, although there are significant differences in attitudes between respondents who prefer domestic destinations and those who prefer to travel out of Kingdom. Implications of the findings are outlined and discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 424
Author(s):  
Luis Gargallo Vaamonde

During the Restoration and the Second Republic, up until the outbreak of the Civil War, the prison system that was developed in Spain had a markedly liberal character. This system had begun to acquire robustness and institutional credibility from the first dec- ade of the 20th Century onwards, reaching a peak in the early years of the government of the Second Republic. This process resulted in the establishment of a penitentiary sys- tem based on the widespread and predominant values of liberalism. That liberal belief system espoused the defence of social harmony, property and the individual, and penal practices were constructed on the basis of those principles. Subsequently, the Civil War and the accompanying militarist culture altered the prison system, transforming it into an instrument at the service of the conflict, thereby wiping out the liberal agenda that had been nurtured since the mid-19th Century.


Author(s):  
Ewin Karman Nduru ◽  
Efori Buulolo ◽  
Pristiwanto Pristiwanto

Universities or institutions that operate in North Sumatra are very many, therefore, of course, competition in accepting new students is very tight, universities or institutions do certain ways or steps to be able to compete with other campuses in gaining interest from community or high school students who will continue their studies to a higher level. STMIK BUDI DARMA Medan (College of Information and Computer Management), is the first computer high school in Medan which was established on March 1, 1996 and received approval from the government through the Minister of Education and Culture, on July 23, 1996 with operating license number 48 / D / O / 1996, in promoting the campus, the team usually formed a promotion team to various regions in the North Sumatra Region to provide information to the community. Students who have learned in this campus are quite a lot who come from various regions in North Sumatra, from this point the need to process data from students who are active in college to be processed using data mining to achieve a target, one method that can be used in data mining, namely the ¬K-Modes clustering (grouping) algorithm. This method is a grouping of student data that will be a help to campus students in promoting, using the K-Modes algorithm is expected to help and become a reference for marketing in determining the marketing strategy STMIK Budi Darma MedanKeywords: STMIK Budi Darma, Marketing Strategy, K-Modes Algorithm.


2020 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Anna Sharova

Anna Sharova reviews two recent books separately published by two English language authors – P. Martell and J. Young. The books are very different in style and mood. While P. Martell presents an excellent example of British journalist prose in the style of his elder compatriots Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, who did their reporting and writing from exotic countries during fateful periods of history, J. Young offers a more academic, though no less ‘on the spot’ analysis of the situation in the youngest independent country of Africa. J. Young’s considers two possible approaches to conflict resolution as possible outcomes: non-intervention cum continuation of the war, or the introduction of international governance. P. Martell comes up with a disappointing prediction about the future of South Sudan. The war will go on, the famine will return, and the threat of genocide will not disappear. People will continue to flee the country, and refugee camps will grow. New warring groups will appear, new murders will be committed. Neighbouring states will not stop competing for influence and resources. New peacekeepers will arrive. Warlords will be accused of crimes, but, as before, they will escape punishment, while some will be promoted.


Author(s):  
Ira Patriani

Border areas, is one of affected area on COVID_19 this present. Many of people cn not go out as usually, adding almost each country has to implement their territorial limitation (lockdown policy) to minimalize this virus spreading. One of Malaysia State, where very close and get direct border with Indonesia. This research took place at Sanggau District, Entikong, Gun Tembawang Village.The research approach used is qualitative, using data collection methods in the form of interviews, observations, and documentation supported by interviews with the theoretical approach to the negative and positive aspects on policy implementation. Research results, The results stated that the lockdown activities of Malaysia which were affected by the corona virus outbreak needed to be carried out in an effort to minimize the spread of the virus outbreak. Although of course it has a negative impact on the country's economic structure, social issues and other sector. In implementing this lockdown, there is a need for cooperation between the government and the community as well as an agreement with neighboring countries in terms of the mobility of residents closest to each other's territory on exemptions in order to realize social welfare and public health without limiting the origin of the state, religion, community and profession. Especially in border areas where mobility and kinship ties have always been closer than in other regions. Keywords: Border area, lockdown policy, covid_19


Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth

Two low-level armed conflicts, Indonesia’s East Timor and Ivory Coast’s post-2010 election crises, provide detailed qualitative evidence of highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) engaging in effective civil warpreventing activities in member-states. Highly structured IGOs threatened and sanctioned each of these states and offered (long-term) benefits conditional on successful crisis resolution. The governments were aware of and responded to these IGOs’ concerns, as did the rebels in these respective cases. The early stages of the conflict in Syria in 2011 provide a counterpoint. With Syria’s limited engagement in only few highly structured IGOs, the Syrian government ignored international calls for peace. And, without highly structured IGOs’ counterweight to curtail the government, the rebels saw little reason to stop their armed resistance. The result was a brutal and deadly civil war that continues today.


Author(s):  
Christine Cheng

During the civil war, Liberia’s forestry sector rose to prominence as Charles Taylor traded timber for arms. When the war ended, the UN’s timber sanctions remained in effect, reinforced by the Forestry Development Authority’s (FDA) domestic ban on logging. As Liberians waited for UN timber sanctions to be lifted, a burgeoning domestic timber market developed. This demand was met by artisanal loggers, more commonly referred to as pit sawyers. Out of this illicit economy emerged the Nezoun Group to provide local dispute resolution between the FDA’s tax collectors and ex-combatant pit sawyers. The Nezoun Group posed a dilemma for the government. On the one hand, the regulatory efforts of the Nezoun Group helped the FDA to tax an activity that it had banned. On the other hand, the state’s inability to contain the operations of the Nezoun Group—in open contravention of Liberian laws—highlighted the government’s capacity problems.


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