Law Commons^™

The Lack Of Coordination In Diplomatic Peacemaking, Birger Heldt

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs

The increased number of peacemaking actors during the past twenty years is accompanied by an increased amount of peacemaking, but also a low success rate. This article focuses on recent emerging conflicts. It finds that peacemaking is prevalent, but is often not coordinated with regard to choice of tools (mediation, arbitration, etc.), or the agenda or the issues of the talks. This lack of coordination has for many years been recognized as detrimental and may partly explain the low success rate. The article suggests that policymakers need to have a long-term strategy to address the coordination problem, part of which …