ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines Marieke Kleiboer's conceptual four-model framework of mediation. It highlights a number of contemporary mediation models to illustrate the diversity of mediation approaches to manage interstate and intergroup conflicts in the peace and conflict studies (PACS) field. The chapter provides some discussion of the lessons learned from mediation intervention in international disputes. It also focuses on the extensive literature on international mediation to highlight a number of contemporary models to manage elite interstate and intergroup conflicts to determine what some of the important lessons is that can be taken away regarding the centrality of international mediation as a critical conflict management tool in cross-cultural settings. "Transformative mediation" empowers conflicting parties to understand each other's perspectives to identify issues and decide together settlements that work. Lederach critiques the prescriptive conflict resolution approaches that are developed and disseminated in other cultural contexts and instead proposes an "elicitive" approach where local cultural resources are used in conflict transformation.
