Redefining Peace Leadership; Insights from Track One Women Negotiators and Mediators
To date, despite relative progress in women’s participation in peace processes, very little is known about the experiences of women mediators and negotiators in “Track One” peace processes. In an attempt to address this knowledge gap, the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice (Kroc IPJ), the European Institute of Peace, and the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) launched a joint initiative to learn from and with women negotiators and mediators.
Through the conceptual lens of process design, this consortium brought together women mediators and negotiators from a broad range of conflict contexts and peace processes to explore the challenges they have faced and the strategies they have developed when engaging in mediation and negotiation at the Track One level.
This report highlights key findings from the three workshops that took place between 2019 and 2020 as part of the initiative. It is structured around six key insights from the workshops, with illustrative case examples from Syria, Kenya, Kosovo, Mozambique, and the Philippines. The report concludes with an exploration of what “peace leadership” could and should mean in negotiations and mediation in the 21st century.