Negotiation or mediation?: An exploration of factors affecting the choice of conflict management in international conflict

The conditions under which negotiation or mediation are chosen in internati onal conflict have been little studied. Previous research has tended to foc us on the motivations and rational calculations of the states involved. Sca nt attention has been given to examining the effect of the context on this choice. In this article, we present a framework for studying the contextual conditions under which negotiation or mediation are likely to take place. Employing an original data set, we find that negotiation tends to be used w hen conflicts are relatively simple, of a low intensity and when both parti es are relatively equal in power. Mediation, on the other band, tends to be used in disputes characterized by high complexity, high intensity, long du ration, unequal and fractionated parties, and where the willingness of the parties to settle peacefully is in doubt.