This penetrating study of successful mediation in a half-dozen violent conflicts across the African continent focuses on a hitherto neglected dimension of mediation and the motivations of the parties in conflict—and of the mediators themselves—in initiating the mediation option.

The "problem" of many journalistic accounts and scholarly analyses of conflict mediation is that they detail the mediation process in full swing but have largely neglected the crucial phase of mediators' entry into the destructive and disturbing mass violence in Burundi, Rwanda, the Congo, Sudan, and West Africa and the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

This collaboration of renowned scholars and a practitioner in conflict management and African politics seeks to draw wide-ranging and timely conclusions on the early stages of mediation from six case studies.

About the Authors

Mohammed O. Maundi is with the Tanzanian Mission to the United Nations in New York.

I. William Zartman is the Jacob Blaustein professor of international organization and conflict resolution and director of the African Studies and Conflict Management programs at the Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Gilbert Khadiagala is acting director of the African Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C

Kwaku Nuamah is the project coordinator for the Council on Foreign Relations’ G8-Africa Project.