Contextual Factors. Systemic Features, Parties’ Characteristics and Nature of the Conflict To evaluate mediation activities it is crucial to consider the ove- rall context and conditions that surround the conflict. The first set of contextual factors can be labeled as systemic features. These include all those geopolitical aspects that might affect the outcome of the media- tion process. For instance, one of them is the international context. As Xxxxxxxx (1996) explains, the influence of other parties and of other conflicts taking place at the same time are very relevant in this respect. On the one hand, various forms of pressure (such as economic and po- litical) used by outside parties that have an interest in the conflict may have both constructive and destructive effects on conflict management efforts. On the other, concurrent and similar events of conflicts that take place in proximity might have an impact on mediation activities. Kriesberg highlights that when a conflict’s salience decreases “as other fights become of greater importance for one or more of the adversaries, de-escalation is more likely to occur” (1991, 20). This issue is directly related to settlements and documents produced over time in those con- flicts. The creation of peace settlements and similar documents has been under careful analysis by conflict management theory. As Fortna (2003) indicates, there are specific mechanisms within cease-fire agreements that might affect the ‘durability of peace’, such as the withdrawal of forces, creation of demilitarized zones, formal cease-fire agreements, peacekeeping, third party guarantees, and dispute resolution procedu- res (pg. 339). Ultimately, another systemic feature that should not be overlooked is the pattern of alignments on the international level with a specific focus on the distribution of power among the actors. Apart from the external conditions of the conflict, internal charac- teristics of each party represent an important set of factors that affect the mediation process and outcome. In general, features such as regime type, internal cohesiveness, international capacity and previous relati- onships between parties represent the focal group of these characteri- stics. According to Xxxxxxxxxx (2005), in case the conflict is between open democracies, there are better chances that the mediation activities will have a successful outcome, while in case of non-democratic regimes third party intervention will have to rely much more on coercive met- hods...
