This paper emphasises the importance of religion and religious actors in the process of mediation. We examine the general conditions that facilitate mediation in international relations and assess how much these hold true in the case of faith-based mediation. We find that aspects such as legitimacy and leverage have a major impact on the success or failure of mediation. We examine how these factors manifest themselves in the case of religious mediators, and we show that legitimacy and leverage are still crucial to successful mediation but have a very different meaning and content in the case of religious actors. We explore the consequences of these differences and explain how religious mediation may work best in tandem with the more traditional forms of mediation.
Key findings:
- Religion has often been portrayed as having a negative impact on conflict and peacemaking processes. Religious bigotry and hatred are indeed amongst the main drivers of so much conflict in the world today. Many would see religion as the main cause of conflict. Religion is after all about differences, morality and justifications. Yet religion has another dimension to it, one that has usually been neglected, and that is its role in peacemaking and mediation. We have tried here to emphasize some of the implications of this role.
- There are two main areas where faith-based actors and religious mediators have a significant impact on any peacemaking process. One is of course the respect, legitimacy and trust accorded to religious mediators and their ability to use these to effect a settlement. Faith-based actors bring a new dimension of trust and legitimacy and thus leverage into the process. They are respected, often even admired, and readily followed. This gives them tremendous leverage over certain parties in conflict. Religion is here seen as a major resource, as a major source of leverage for good. Whereas states bring with them into the mediation process tangible resources such as power and money, faith-based mediators bring with them intangible resources such as respect, trust and loyalty. Both can work effectively to transform a conflict. Religion may be used in conflict to build peace and reconciliation.
- The second area where religion may be used to promote peace is in the development of interfaith dialogue. This is a relatively new phenomenon, and it involves religious leaders repressing groups in conflict, developing lines of communications between hostile parties, removing a climate of fear, and developing common ethical principles. Interfaith dialogue enables religious leaders to deal with even the thorniest issues in conflict in a manner that their secular counterparts could only envy. Hopefully the common ground that religious leaders may find can then be transferred to the political leadership to exploit and expand. Either way, it seems clear that in our complex and convoluted world, faith-based mediators may have a significant role to play in the process of peacemaking.
