ABSTRACT
Ethnic violence across many regions of Africa presents the international policy community with wrenching dilemmas and difficult decisions. This chapter focuses on mediation in one particularly difficult set of conflicts—ethnicity-related violent crises in Africa during the post-Cold War era. Mediation of violent, ethnic, African, intrastate crises is a case of paradox. Mediators' crisis management attempts face acute hazards during these events. Obstacles to peace include increased threat and stress, severe information problems, risk-acceptant behavior of crisis actors, and heightened security dilemmas and commitment problems. Mediating Intrastate Crises focuses on violent ethnic crises within African protracted intrastate conflicts from 1990-2005, identified using the Uppsala Conflict Data Program and the Minorities at Risk Project (MAR). The chapter analyzes the subset of violent intrastate crises that are part of African protracted conflicts—mostly identified by Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)—involving at least one MAR ethnic group as the non-state actor.
