Political Identity, Conflict Structure, and Mediation
The present contribution attempts to show that mediation is better understood and its chances of success better evaluated if carried out through an approach that conceives conflict according to an analysis of the codetermination of the power structure and the identity of actors. Such an approach would be helpful in refining the theory of maturity found in negotiations literature. As articulated in the first section, this approach will be used in application to the Syrian conflict, and later in an analysis of a mediation undertaken by the Arab League from 2011 to 2012. The main finding is that the failure of this mediation process was partly related to the League’s strategy, based on a working hypothesis which was alien to the structural and identity terms of the conflict.