ABSTRACT
Introduction It is generally agreed that culture and cultural differences have a significant influence in today’s world. Culture affects the behaviour of individuals, and shapes the way states act, or resolve their differences. Recently, the concept of culture has been employed by Huntington (1993) in a broad fashion to suggest that future conflicts in international relations would take place not between states but between civilizations, which are large cultural blocks. Culture is posited by Huntington to be the main, perhaps even the only, cause of future conflict in international relations. Although Huntington’s ideas created quite a stir, they did help to stimulate a serious discussion on the role and relevance of culture in international relations. The growing efforts devoted to an understanding of culture, and the numerous scholarly products in this area, have yielded all too few insights. Our understanding of the concept and its impact is still largely underdeveloped, and mostly derived from anecdotal or experimental evidence – from neither of which can we extrapolate to the world of international politics. The issue we wish to address is quite simple: does culture have an impact on international conflict management in general and on mediation in particular? Many scholars and practitioners would suggest that the answer is self-evident: of course it does! Diplomats offer colourful examples from their personal experience. Researchers produce evidence on how culture influences other types of human behaviour. At the same time, however, other scholars reach the contrary conclusion. In conflicts, they argue, what really matters is power, resources and interests. If national decision makers find it to be in their vital interest to reach an agreement, they will do so, regardless of cultural differences. Any observed effect of cultural traits on conflict episodes is therefore superficial and nonconsequential; it does not really affect the course or outcome of a conflict. Here we wish to look at the relationship between culture and mediation. Mediation is generally considered one of the key ingredients in the efforts to settle international conflicts. More specifically, we attempt to clarify the impact of culture on international mediation. We wish to find out what correlations exist between cultural differences, as measured by five empirical indicators of culture,
and mediation outcomes. Our research constitutes the first attempt to empirically measure the influence of culture in mediation using quantitative data. In this sense, the paper breaks new ground and adds new knowledge to our existing research. We first examine the nature of culture and discuss different definitions of the concept. We emphasize the complex and diffuse character of the concept and note that this complicates efforts to empirically examine its effects in any given situation. We continue to briefly describe how culture has been previously visualized in international relations and negotiation literature, and claim that culture is becoming increasingly seen as a major element in theories of conflict resolution. Next, the debate between proponents and sceptics as regards the influence of culture is analysed. In the empirical part of the article we look at culture in terms of five operational variables, and examine their influence on mediation. We do so by utilizing an original data set on culture and mediation. Finally, we will discuss the implication of our results.
