Managing Africa's Violent Conflicts

Conflict management research has not often compared the effectiveness of different methods such as negotiation and mediation. Consequently, applying conflict management techniques to international disputes has sometimesbeen ad hoc and ineffectual. This article compares the effectiveness of negotiation and mediation in African conflict management in the period 1945 to 1995. Utilizing an original data set on cases of negotiation and mediation, the analysis indicates that, overall, bilateral negotiations are more successful than mediation. However, negotiation is difficult to initiate in cases of intense, intractable civil conflicts, and works best in cases of interstate disputes. Given that Africa's worst conflicts are all intense, long-running civil wars, improving the effectiveness of mediation in the region is a top priority