Cultural Influences on Mediation in International Crises

Abstract

In order to assess the impact of culture on state behavior in international crises, specifically with regard to mediation and its outcome, this study tests hypotheses rooted in both the international relations and the cross-cultural psychology literatures, implementing analysis at both the international-system level and the domestic-state-actor level. At the international system level, the study finds that cultural difference between adversaries affects whether or not mediation occurs during an international crisis but has no effect on tension reduction. At the domestic state actor level, we find that there are certain facets of cultural identity that make a state more or less open to requesting or accepting third-party mediation during an international crisis, but that these facets have no effect on tension reduction.

Barriers to Coordination? Examining the Impact of Culture on International Mediation Occurrence and Effectiveness

“…This mirrors previous findings by, e.g. Inman et al (2014) Mediator Polity Democracy score according to the polity2 variable from the Polity IV dataset.…”

“…That said, the discussion so far leads to the first hypothesis (see also Bercovitch and Elgström, 2001;Bercovitch and Foulkes, 2012;Inman et al, 2014;Leng and Regan, 2003):…”

“…2 There is also a broad psychology literature on culture and mediation. Inman et al (2014) and Leng and Regan (2003) provide an excellent review of these studies and we refer the interested reader to this work. 3 Leng and Regan (2003), Carnevale and Choi (2000) and Bercovitch and Foulkes (2012) are noteworthy exceptions here.…”

Religion as a Peacemaker? Peace Duration after Ethnic Civil Wars

“…Sharing the same religion facilitates communication, the capacity to appreciate the other side's interests, and to agree on the rules of the mediation effort and negotiating or bargaining styles. Inman et al (2014) do not find cultural differences to influence the effectiveness of mediation. Yet they add a possible causal explanation: cultural, including religious, differences between belligerents may lead to distrust of the mediator.…”

Partnering to Make Peace: The Effectiveness of Joint African and Non-African Mediation Efforts

“…define, let alone measure in a statistical analysis, but an approximation is put forward by Inman et al, who operationalise culture by measuring religion, ethnicity, and language. 45 The shared culture dummy variable used in the empirical analysis is coded as 1 if the chief mediator shares the same religion, ethnicity, and language with at least one of the conflict parties.…”