Political Negotiations

Political Actors in Negotiations

POLS 4425- Political Negotiations and Conflict Resolution GGC - PCIS. Instructor: Clemente Quinones

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Feb 05 - Feb 09, 2024 Civil Society and Peace Negotiations: Confronting Exclusion

Striking Finddings

Why Include Representatives of Civil Society?

Why to Prevent Representatives of Civil Society from Participating

Outline/Objectives Political Actors in Negotiations

Civil Society Roles in Peace Negotiations

Civil Society VS Social Movements

Social Movements

Civil Society II: Impacts

Civil Society I

Secrecy VS Openness

Back Channel

Summary of Results

Civil Society and Peace Negotiations

Info

ARGUMENT: the absence of civil society voices and interests at the negotiating table can negatively impact the sustainability of a peace agreement during peacebuilding. RESULTS: A strong correlation was found between active civil society participation in peace negotiations and the durability of peace during the peace-building phases. Cases, in which civil society groups actively engaged in peace negotiations, seemed to enjoy more sustained peace in the peace-building phase

Confronting Exclusion

Back Channel: When parties in conflict recognize their need to talk to the enemy even while there is ongoing confrontation or violence, they go to extremes of exclusion and engage in secret talks: what Henry Kissinger (1979: 138) called “back channel” negotiations (Pruitt 2006). Example: Palestinian-Israeli breakthroughs in 1993 at Oslo.

Secrecy VS Openness

Info

NEVER A DEBATE: We talk; have a conversation; have a dialogue to build and maintain peace

Negotiating and Building your/our Peace

Diversity: pros and cons

Characteristics:

Civil Society I

Everything from community associations to religious institutions, trade unions, nongovernmental organizations (such as human rights groups, relief organizations, development organizations and conflict resolution groups), business associations, and professional associations such as the Bar or account ants’ associations.

Civil society: Defined as the vast array of public-oriented associations that are not formal parts of the governing institutions of the state.

Civil Society II

The first is structural, Civil society groups themselves provide organization to public interests, articulate them into the governmental realm and protect them when government oversteps its prerogatives. The second is political-cultural, Their actions help to disseminate civic values – often called social capital (Putnam 1993) across the polity at large – and demonstrate democratic behaviors for both political elites and the public (de Tocqueville 1956).

The impacts of civil society:

Social Movements

The Major Types of Social Movements: Reform movements, revolutionary movements, reactionary movements, self-help movements, and religious movements. Stages of Social Movements: Four major stages in the life cycle of a social movement include emergence, coalescence, institutionalization or bureaucratization, and decline.

Neidhardt and Rucht (2001, 540) consider a social movement as a ‘Social entity of interlinked persons, groups, and organizations […], who express protests via collective actions to change social or political conditions or to counteract ongoing processes of change.’

Civil Society VS Social Movements

Going beyond this analysis:Paticipation of both civil society and social movements in both peace negotiations and peace building is critical and important

The concept of civil society refers to the features of associations in a public sphere or arena and their role in politics and society. The concept of social movement refers to processes of mobilization and action.

Track II: To supplement Track I - negotiations among the political elite by engaging secondary actors.Temporary Intermediaries When the primary channels are closed, Civ. Soc. may help keep the lines of communication open. Membership in an Official Delegation vs Civil Society-led Delegations

Why Have Civil Soc. Involved in Negotiations? War’s brutality; civil society offers an important potential conduit for the public interest Roles in Negotiations: Representative participation, consultative mechanisms, and direct participation.

Civil Society Roles in Peace Negotiations

Progressive Deterioration of Effective Communication Permit the creation of competing coalitions that may blocked any possible solution (soon?)

Game Theory: in a two-party game, two players may work better and be more productive than many parties in an N-party game may do and be (Robert Axelrod (1984). Prisoner’s Dilemma to an n-person version will not sustain cooperation very well because the players have no way of focusing their punishment on someone in the group who has failed to cooperate.”

Tradition: diplomacy was conducted usually by political elites.Adding More: Adding difficulty to the already problematic discussions.

Why to Prevent Representatives of Civil Society from Being Present at Peace Negotiations

People-focused Peace Agenda (Agenda Setting). Greater accountability from the combatant parties as they transition from negotiation to peacebuilding. If the conflict is local, the solution is more promising if civil society (local) is included...

Diversity: diversity of input, resources, and perspectives to a task such as negotiations. Most affected: Inclusion of those mostly affected by the conflict.

Why Include Representatives of Civil Society in Peace Negotiations

Most of the cases of low civil society involvement experienced a resumption of warfare.Moderate civil society involvement also saw sustained peace.

First, all the negotiations characterized by high civil society involvement have resulted in sustained peace in the peacebuilding phase among the cases they considered.

Striking Findings

Civil Society is Important in the Peace Building Prcess

"The more democratic and broadly representative the conflict parties, the lower the need for civil society to have an actual seat at the negotiation table" But

When Civil Society is not that Necessary?

Democrartic Negotiators

Don’t forget to publish!

Esto es un párrafo listo para contener creatividad, experiencias e historias geniales.