Mediation in a World in Flux

This course examines the challenges and opportunities facing international peacemaking, with a particular focus on mediation as a tool to facilitate political solutions to violent conflict. Complementing other courses offered by CICR, it will provide students with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of how different peacemakers and mediators – the UN and other multilateral actors, states and non-governmental organizations – are approaching the changing realities of conflict and global politics. What are the factors that impede contemporary efforts to resolve conflict? How have mediators adapted, and how should they adapt in the future, to rapid changes in geopolitics, the fragmentation of non-state armed groups and an ever-more crowded mediation field, all while resources for peace and humanitarian assistance are in decline and previously agreed norms are meeting resistance? When and how can mediators encourage conflict parties to address rapidly evolving conflict issues, including the impacts of the climate emergency and evolving digital technologies on conflict dynamics and peace processes?