Posao koji čeka: bolje vezivanje teorije i prakse posredovanja u međunarodnim sukobima
Undertaking Pending Ahead: Improving The Theory And Practice Of Mediation In International Conflicts

Summary/Abstract: Mediation of international conflicts bears out as a fairly successful tool in managing intensive conflicts either towards transformation or resolution. although regarded as an activity promising cessation of hostilities even in the most violent of conflicts, mediation outcomes are still falling short or stay-ing behind held expectations. different types of mediators and mediation approaches taken up by them at different stages during the “lifecycle”, either of international conflicts or internal ones being internationalised, different roles that international mediation have played with different outcomes, often irreconcilable with outcomes deemed acceptable by the conflicting sides, all make international mediation widely unfathomable both to those directly involved and to detached observers. Better understanding is needed for more successful practices of international mediation in managing conflicts either by transforming them through the reduction of violence or finding, in the log run, some sustainable solution satisfying to the parties involved. The study of mediation is not theoretically well integrated into diplomatic studies or, for that matter, into studies of international politics. it turns out to be an obstacle thwarting indispensable improvements in international mediation practices and more effective mediation outcomes. Traditional prescriptive theory as a predominant host for understating mediation in international conflicts frus-trates efforts aimed in grasping the mediations outcomes through series of its reductive foundational assumptions. an approach offered as alternative to the common analytical treatment of mediation in prescriptive theory integrates mediation into foreign policy. moderately better results in understanding and explaining international mediations outcomes are provided by presenting mediation as part of foreign policy. This article presents diplomatic theory as a framework for far better understanding of mediation, explaining international mediation outcomes and devising effective mediation efforts. “diplomatic” approach proves to be more theoretically promising for much needed and pressing improvements in understanding mediation in international conflicts, since diplomacy is a mediating institution and practice, and international mediation stands as the very norm as well as important interventionist instru-ment in existing diplomatic system. international mediation integrated into diplomatic theory provides for examination of one crucial, but still missing element in our understanding of international mediation outcomes, i.e. be-haviour of international mediator as diplomatic system manager.

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