Panel 4: The Role of Regional Organizations in Conflict Resolution
Thursday 17/7/2008, 11:00-12:30 | Room HOGC 03.101
In spite of great hopes being placed in them, regional organizations have yet to fully actualize their potential when it comes to the prevention and resolution of conflicts. Although there has been some recent progress (notably within the African Union), regional organizations have usually found themselves unable to decisively impact both inter-state and intra-state conflicts. And despite the widespread introduction of early warning mechanisms, preventive action still eludes regional organizations. The aim of this panel is to critically examine the role of regional organizations in different crises with the intention of addressing the broader question whether these organizations do have the potential to prevent and resolve conflicts, or whether such aspirations will remain a pipe dream.
Chair: Herbert Wulf
Discussant: Kevin Clements
OSCE Role in Post-Soviet Conflict Resolution: Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict
Armenian -Azerbaijani conflict has been OSCE's first conflict resolution -mediation efforts- experience in post cold war era and post soviet space. For the conflicting sides the OSCE has been serving as part of social life due to huge humanitarian consequences of the armed conflict and OSCE heavy involvement in it.
The proposed paper would try to analyze the changing dynamics of OSCE mediation in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) conflict resolution for the past 16 years. The methods applied, the approaches taken within negotiation process and supplemental diplomacy via press and various conferences are going to be subject of the paper.
Its changing nature from pure mediation efforts towards institutionalized mediation structure will be thoroughly examined. Its deficiencies and advantages and the efforts of the conflicting sides to influence the mediation efforts are to be analyzed.
Interrelationship of OSCE with other international organizations in settlement processes is also going to be addressed. The attitude of people towards OSCE mediation will also be examined.
Conflict Prevention in Latin and the Caribbean: The Role of Regional and Sub-regional Actors
At the regional level, the paper will identify the main mechanisms which have been developed by the Organization of American States (OAS) during the past 10 years. In the early 90s, it undertook a series of actions for conflict resolution, mainly in Central America, Colombia and Haiti. In view of this, violent conflict prevention has become an important issue. The OAS has undergone a series of institutional changes which have been oriented towards developing programs and strategies for violent conflict prevention. The paper will analyze different case studies, such as the Roundtable for Negotiation and Agreements in Venezuela during 2002-2004.
At the sub-regional level, it will identify violent conflict prevention measures and provide a comparative analysis of programs that have been developed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the Central American Integration System (SICA).
It will also seek to set forth proposals that could contribute to strengthen their role in violent conflict prevention. One area to be covered is the interrelationship which could be established between the OAS and sub-regional schemes. Another refers to programs to be undertaken by each sub-regional organization in response to possible scenarios where conflict prevention measures would be required. The third looks at the role that civil society organizations can play in the prevention of violent conflict and its possible contribution to OAS and sub-regional programs.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development: Meeting Challenges and Failing Expectations?
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is one of Africa's youngest regional organisations, founded comparably late in 1986 as the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Desertification (IGADD). Located in Africa's most conflict ridden sub-region, the Horn of Africa, the organisation had to redirect its focus from conflict prevention to conflict resolution during the late 1990s and the beginning of the new century. While it subsequently got involved in the Sudan and Somalia peace processes and has been choosen to contribute one of the African Standby Brigades (ASF) to the African Union, its efforts in conflict resolution did not produce lasting peace accords. Although being hailed by the international community for its efforts, it has also failed to deploy a promised peacekeeping force to Somalia.
The paper argues that this failure is due to two important and perhaps more general problems with African regional organisations: First, these organisations have to cope with conflicts within their organisational borders in contrast to other regional organisations like the European Union, where conflicts arise in areas adjacent to the regional organisation. Second, young regional organisations are especially vulnerable to the influence of disproportionately influential member states. A bias that is being acclerated when the organisation is relatively small. In the context of IGAD this means that the organisation, with only seven member states, one being a failed state, is particularily dominated by Ethiopia's interests. The paper will consequently argue that African regional organisations will have to rethink their strategies in conflict resolution programmes.