Mediator Types and the Effectiveness of Information Provision Strategies in the Resolution of International Conflict

Burcu Savun
University of Pittsburgh

February 18, 2009

NEW APPROACHES TO MEDIATION, Jacob Bercovitch and Scott Gartner, eds., pp. 96-114, Routledge

Abstract:

This study emphasizes that mediators may facilitate negotiated settlements by providing relevant information to the belligerents. Mediation can reduce uncertainty in the environment because mediators may have access to information regarding one or both of the disputing states’ costs of fighting and/or probability of winning that the disputants do not have about each other. The findings of this study demonstrate that information provision is an effective mediation strategy once we take into account a mediator’s ability to elicit relevant information about the disputants and the dependence between a mediator’s decision to mediate a given international crisis and the outcome of mediation.

Mediator Types and the Effectiveness of Information Provision Strategies in the Resolution of International Conflict