International Mediation Bias and Peacemaking: Taking Sides in Civil Wars

It is a truism in mainstream academic debates and practical trainings that mediators’ impartiality is an essential element of successful peace mediation. In order to gain trust from negotiating parties who are carrying out adversarial bargaining, the traditional assumption suggests that mediating bodies must remain “impartial and unbiased, ideally unconnected” to any of the direct participants.[1] Moreover, mediators are believed to have more opportunities to promote creative suggestions, and to organize external interventionsmore effectively, when they constantly maintain unbiased positions throughout the negotiation period.[2]