Comment archive

Tuesday, 10 Feb 2026
Naming the moment without despair: Women mediators in a shifting global order

Women mediators are not guests in the future order – they are architects.

Tuesday, 9 Dec 2025
Quality of mediation is a major issue in the Ukraine peace process

The ongoing talks between the US, Russian and Ukrainian teams of negotiators may yet produce a “peace deal” – so desired by President Donald Trump – by the end of the tumultuous year 2025, or at least before the disastrous war comes to the four-year mark.

Wednesday, 15 Nov 2023
Is the Time Ripe for Peace Diplomacy Regarding Ukraine?

In the war between Russia and Ukraine, the distance between the parties seems insurmountable. Ukraine has proposed a ‘peace formula’, and various other peace plans have also been put forward. Now Ukraine’s supporters are starting to signal that the time is ripe for diplomatic solutions. On 20 February next year, ...

Sunday, 22 Oct 2023
The Next Surge of Conflict in the South Caucasus Is Still Preventable

The tragic exodus of the Armenian population from the Nagorno Karabakh region has closed a chapter in the long saga of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The disappearance of this self-proclaimed republic provides the opportunity to bring these bitter hostilities to an end; it takes, nevertheless, plenty of wishful political ...

Tuesday, 16 May 2023
The Other ‘Peace Process’ on Afghanistan: Geneva Talks 1982-1988

In the past three years, the US government’s role in the Doha Talks (2010-2020) has attracted scrutiny and criticism within the United States and abroad. Starting in November 2010, the Doha Talks was a process of intermittent negotiations between the United States and the Afghan Taliban. The culmination of this process ...

Tuesday, 3 Jan 2023
Right on Its Side, but Not Might?

The lessons an ancient Greek war can teach Ukraine today. Ukraine is confronted with a stark choice: fight on through a bitter winter with death raining from above, or initiate negotiations with Russia under unfavorable terms. Two-and-a-half millennia ago, the leaders of the Greek island of Melos confronted a similar ...

Tuesday, 30 Aug 2022
Is Digital Peace Mediation Here to Stay?

International peace mediation has undergone many changes in the past decade. While its fundamental principles have remained the same, the increased digitalization of peace mediation coupled with the practical challenges of peacebuilding during a global pandemic has necessitated the introduction of digital tools and virtual platforms. These developments have accelerated ...

Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Украинские женщины участвуют в сопротивлении и должны участвовать в мирных переговорах: новые данные опросов

Женщины – “неотъемлемая часть своей страны и её сопротивления”. С таким посланием Катерина Черепаха, президент организации “Ла Страда – Україна”, обратилась к миру в своём апрельском выступлении в Совете Безопасности ООН.. В своей речи она также подчеркнула возросшую незащищённость женщин и девочек в отношении угрозы похищения, пыток и убийства. Теперь ...

Saturday, 30 Apr 2022
Українські жінки беруть участь в опорі і мають брати участь у мирних перемовинах: результати нового опитування

Жінки є «невід’ємною частиною країни та її опору» – з таким посланням звернулася до світу президент організації «Ла Страда-Україна» Kaтeринa Чeрeпaхa,  виступаючи перед Радою Безпеки ООН у квітні. У своєму виступі вона також підкреслила високу вразливість жінок і дівчат щодо загроз викрадення, катувань та вбивств. Тепер ми знаємо, що жінки ...

Friday, 29 Apr 2022
Ukrainian Women Engage in Resistance and Should Be in the Peace Talks: New Survey Evidence

Women are an “integral part of her country and its resistance.” This was the message that Kateryna Cherepakha, President of the organization La Strada-Ukraine, communicated to the world when speaking before the UN Security Council in April. Her speech also highlighted increased vulnerability of women and girls to the threat ...

Wednesday, 11 Mar 2020
Making a Regional Peacemaker

On March 3 the PRIO-CSS Jordan seminar, “Preserving Spaces for Dialogue in the Middle East”, was situated by the shore of the Dead Sea. The view was both beautiful and thematically fitting, because while most people associate the Dead Sea with a rather exotic seaside tourist destination, and the Kingdom ...

Friday, 31 Jan 2020
“Peace to Prosperity”: The death knell of the U.S. as mediator in the Israel – Palestine conflict

Is the U.S. done as a mediator in the Israel-Palestinian conflict? Middle East scholars and analysts have argued for some years that the heyday of the two-state solution is over. The idea of it, at least in the minds of the international society, is very much alive. Regardless of all ...

Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019
On the Front Lines of Sustaining Peace in Colombia

Sustaining peace in Colombia Conflict-ridden societies, including –counterintuitively– those that have recently overcome violent conflict through a political settlement, are fraught with mistrust, polarisation, and resistance to change. The implementation of peace agreements is often the new arena where tension and controversy manifest themselves. In Colombia, for example, the recent ...

Tuesday, 9 Jul 2019
Heating up: mediation and climate change

Mediation – the process of helping groups in, or at risk of, armed conflict settle their differences peacefully – rarely gets the attention it deserves given how much bloodshed it has averted. In the twenty years following 1988, most of the world’s major armed conflicts were resolved by agreement, leading ...

Monday, 4 Feb 2019
Can President Trump Bring Peace to Afghanistan?

The negotiations between the United States and the Taliban may represent the most important turning point in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led intervention. But the path to an internal Afghan peace process is difficult, and only history will tell whether these negotiations marked the onset of a sustainable Afghan peace ...

Monday, 3 Apr 2017
Peace Diplomacy: Finding Entry Points for Female Mediators

The Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström has invested in a network of female mediators to strengthen women’s roles in peace and reconstruction processes. However, it is not just the supply of female mediators that is the problem, but the demand as well. Where can opportunities be found for women to ...

Thursday, 30 Apr 2015
Patterns of Peacemaking

When do we see international mediation, and what are the impacts? International mediation is a form of diplomatic intervention aimed at reaching negotiated solutions to armed conflict, political violence and international crises. Used by states, organizations, groups or individuals, mediation continues to be an important form of peacemaking. We outline ...

Tuesday, 18 Nov 2014
Peace Processes Need Women

International peace processes are dominated by men and men’s perspectives. In general the approaches used have changed little in many decades. The focus is invariably on bringing the conflicting parties to the negotiating table, where their claims to power and strategic positions are renegotiated and defined. Amnesties for brutal attacks ...