Culture and International Mediation

Exploring Theoretical and Empirical Linkages

Bercovitch, Jacob
Elgström, Ole

¹Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
²Department of Political Science, Lund University, Box 52, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

^*Jacob Bercovitch is Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science at the University of Canterbury. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 1980. His main research interests are in the fields of international conflict resolution and mediation. He has published widely on mediation in international conflicts and is the author or editor of eight books, most recently Studies in International Mediation.

^**Ole Elgström is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Lund University. He is currently engaged in research on negotiation and mediation processes in the European Union.

International Negotiation 6(1):p 3-23, 2001.

Culture is undoubtedly one of the most significant aspects of identity, yet our understanding of the concept and particularly of its consequences for international conflict management is underdeveloped. In this article, we test the hypothesis that cultural differences between parties reflect diversity and contradictions, and that these differences compound the difficulties faced by conflicting parties in finding effective mediated outcomes. Several theories that deal with culture's impact on conflict management are presented and a model is introduced that permits us to test the hypothesis empirically. Five variables that measure culture are examined; these include geographical proximity, nature of the political system, political rights, civil rights and religion. The analysis suggests that all but one (nature of the political system) have a significant impact on mediation outcomes.