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Course Description

Summary

International mediation research is an important, expanding, and intriguing field of study in international relations. This advanced seminar focuses on international, external or third-party mediation in interstate and intrastate warfare as an instrument of conflict resolution, termination, de-escalation, or transformation. Topics to be explored in readings, guest lectures, class discussions, and individual research projects include: the state of the art in international mediation research; international mediation in relation to other foreign policy tools like international arbitration or adjudication, economic sanctions, armed intervention, peacekeeping, development aid, and democracy assistance; conceptualizing, explaining, and assessing diverse elements or facets of mediation processes, including mediation phases, providers, practices, performance, or success and failure; actual and potential uses of power-sharing, federalism, decentralization, and associated autonomy arrangements in mediated settlements; case studies of international mediation in contemporary interstate conflicts and civil wars; divergent approaches to international mediation by the global powers, especially the United States and China; and evolving challenges and future prospects of international mediation in an era of resurgent great-power competition.