Mediation Efforts Needed
The possible deployment of long-range, high precision missiles in Ukraine able to strike deeply into Russian territory and the predictable Russian repost has increased tensions in the armed conflict. Mediation efforts are needed. Are they possible in practice?
Mediation is action taken by a third party to facilitate hostile parties coming together to negotiate. The introduction of a third party distingishes mediation from direct negotiations between the parties. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should have been the normal regional mediator in the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict, but its role has been greatly weakend, and the climate of cooperation destroyed.
The same may hold true for the United Nations. There have been a good number of discussions and some resolutions in the General Assembly but no formal mediation. We will have to see what may arise later in September when a large number of heads of government come to the U.N. for the Summit of the Future. There may be possibilities to get the two sides together informally to see if any common ground could be discerned between them.
The congregation in New York of permanent representatives to the U.N. from member countries has created a "standing diplomatic conference." Thus mediation is a continuous process within the U.N. system even when a mediator as such has not been named by the Secretary-General as had been named Ralph Bunche for the Middle East at an earlier stage in U.N. history.
Formal mediation is a complex process involving questions of the authority of the mediator and the skills and character of the individual mediator. Mediation requires both an institutional framework and the choice of an appropriate individual.
It is unlikely that formal mediation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be created now in New York, but we can hope that informal discussions take place setting out tension-reduction possibilities.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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