Mediating Across Worldviews

Abstract

This chapter considers the ways in which liberal institutions and approaches to peace mediation are inadequate for conflicts rooted in competing worldviews. Many of the most persistent and challenging conflicts are, and always have been, propelled by contending worldviews and their normative dictates. Yet peace mediation processes seem inadequately attuned to the drivers of such conflicts, and unresponsive to the core motivations and aspirations of conflict stakeholders. As a result, the default mechanisms, practices and mindsets that have been relied upon for decades in efforts to manage and resolve violent intra state and international conflict, including common modes of peace mediation, may no longer be fully up to the task. The chapter highlights this failure and proposes a strategy for peace mediation practice to engage in a more meaningful way with this tension.