ABSTRACT
Introduction Conflict is a pervasive and inevitable feature of all social systems. This is true of personal, group and organizational as well as international systems. Wherever it occurs, conflict is significant, newsworthy and challenging. It can lead to mutual satisfaction and growth, or it may produce acrimony, hostility and violence. Our main interest in the study of conflict is related to our desire to manage it in a way that maximizes its potential benefits and minimizes its destructive consequences. There are a number of ways of managing conflict. These may range from avoidance and withdrawal, through bilateral negotiation to various forms of thirdparty intervention. Third-party intervention in conflict, particularly that of the non-binding, non-coercive kind, is as old as conflict itself. It has played an important role in industrial and pre-industrial societies. Its popularity as a way of dealing with conflict grows each year, as does its applicability to different realms. Unresolved problems and conflicts create the conditions for third-party intervention of one form or another. Yet notwithstanding its popularity, longevity, ubiquity and importance, we know far less about third-party mediation than we imagine. Systematic analyses, let alone empirical studies, of third-party intervention in general, and mediation in particular, have been very rare. The phenomenon has for too long remained little studied and poorly understood. The purpose of this chapter is to redress this balance somewhat and present an overview of the behavioural literature on mediation. I intend to do so by organizing the material around the question that is central to an understanding of this problem, namely, what factors and conditions determine the success or failure of mediation? Although the focus of this chapter is the international environment, many of the findings presented here can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of third-party intervention and mediation in other contexts.
