Beyond Mediation: Promoting Change and Resolving Conflict through Authentic National Dialogues

Abstract

In the last century, peace was the product of victory on the battlefield instead of a negotiated settlement. From 1940 until 2002, the world witnessed more than 370 state-based conflicts. Some of them were terminated by cease-fires and peace agreements, others by military interventions. Only 43 percent of all conflict were resolved through a negotiated political settlement, while nearly one-third reoccurred within five years of their initial termination. Significantly, most of the conflicts that reoccurred were mediated by third-party or external mediators.

The lecture was held at the American University of Beirut on May 23, 2011, and edited in July 2015.