ABSTRACT
Peace negotiations are usually preceded by a series of ad hoc and confidential exploratory initiatives, also called talks-about-talks or characterized as the engagement process. They involve a whole range of actors including governments, international organizations, and NGOs, as well as the fighting parties themselves as they test the grounds for negotiations. One of the main challenges is to obtain reliable information about the armed conflict and the belligerent parties. In many cases, access to war zones is too dangerous to allow for an independent and accurate coverage of events, and information emanating from the belligerents themselves can serve many political or strategic purposes. Exploring whether a conflict is ‘ripe enough’ to attempt a mediation effort, or making claims about an armed group’s willingness to engage, is therefore inherently tricky, and deserves many caveats. This is why it is important to explore new approaches that can be used to prepare talks-about-talks.
