April 2024 - Adapting UN Mediation for Emerging Challenges and Security Threats

Dessu South China Sea to Ukraine, Gaza, and the Sahel, shifts in the conflict landscape Senior Researcher and and global/regional political dynamics and rivalries pose the biggest obstacle to Training Coordinator mediating conflicts and underline the urgency of adapting approaches within the international mediation architecture. [...] Challenges and opportunities Trends in the state of peace and security, such as the continued global 2 3 deterioration of peacefulness and the rise in the intensity of conflicts, increasingly invite an interrogation of UN mediation practices. [...] For instance, the interaction among the UN, the African Union (AU) and the sub- regional actors in specific conflict settings is at times marred by the contestation around questions of subsidiarity, divergence within the AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and other national and regional actors on core peace and security issues. [...] The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict further underscores the erosion of the UN’s role in mediation arising from the shifting geopolitics in some crises, which “accelerated geopolitical re-alignment and the polarization associated with the weakening of multilateral 14 frameworks.” Even so, the UN possesses the mandate, expertise, global membership, and resources to initiate and effectively implement. [...] In the context of the UN’s mediation partnership with the AU, frank discussion is required to address issues of mutual mistrust and misperception, including listening to each other and addressing the concerns and views of both parties in the partnership so that no one side feels they were sidelined in the mediation of internalized internal conflict such as Sudan.