Constructive Interventions: Paradigms, Process and Practice of International Mediation

In the contemporary discipline of conflict resolution, adjudication and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) are often seen as antagonistic trends. This important book contends that, on the contrary, it is the bringing together of these trends that holds the most promise for an effective system of international justice. With great insight and passion, built firmly on a vast knowledge of the field, Lars Kirchhoff exposes the contemporary structural barriers to effective conflict resolution, defining where adjudication ends and ADR—and particularly the recent development of mediated third party intervention from an ‘art’ to a veritable ‘science’—must come into play.

The work starts by defining the challenges, potentials and shortcomings of different approaches to conflict resolution in an interdependent world—where the multiplicity of actors, topics and interests involved even in seemingly bilateral conflict situations is clearly manifest—and goes on to define useful models and connect the various elements relevant for the resolution of conflicts in a transparent way.