ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the UN’s mediation efforts in the crucial and fluid middle phase of the Syrian conflict, and the underlying regional and international interests driving these efforts. Using the theoretical frameworks on mediation within the conflict resolution literature, the chapter aims to highlight the major alterations in scope and objectives that the UN-mediated political process went through between 2011 and 2018. The UN and involved international powers backtracked on their originally set mandate in resolving the conflict, moving away from ‘conflict transformation’, as initially envisioned by the 2012 Geneva Communiqué and its emphasis on a political transition, towards ‘conflict containment’ as efforts became focused on a cosmetic constitutional reformation that does little to address existing injustices and grievances. The chapter demonstrates how the scope of mediation efforts in resolving the conflict became increasingly dictated by the growing roles played by external actors and their shifting interests as conflict dynamics were changing. As the conflict progressed, mediation efforts became less about solving the root causes of conflict and more about how to solve differences among external actors to arrive at what is ‘possible’, which ultimately directed and shaped the political process
