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Private Peacemaking and Dialogic Approach to Mediation

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

Introduction

Peace mediation (also referred to as conflict or international mediation) is customarily defined as a process that begins with the prospective mediator (a third party) being invited to work for a peaceful (re)solution of an armed conflict, (Wallensteen and Svensson (2016, p. 12)) presupposed to be “acceptable, impartial, and neutral” (Bercovitch 2007, p. 166; United Nations (UN 2012)). Broadly speaking, peace mediation can be understood as “a process of conflict management, related to but distinct from the parties’ own negotiations, where those in conflict seek the assistance of, or accept an offer of help from, an outsider (whether an individual, an organisation, a group, or a state) to change their perceptions or behavior, and do so without resorting to physical force or invoking the authority of law.” (Bercovitch 2007, p. 167). A conflict transformation perspective departs from a resolution and agreement-centric focus, and approaches peace mediation from a broad and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere Peace Research Institute, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

    Marko Lehti

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  1. Marko Lehti
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Correspondence to Marko Lehti .

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    Sandra Pogodda

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Lehti, M. (2021). Private Peacemaking and Dialogic Approach to Mediation. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_53-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11795-5_53-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11795-5

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