The Failure of Diplomatic Mediations in the Syrian Conflict – A Comparative Analysis

Surviving eight years of conflict resolution efforts, the Syrian conflict has proven to be intractable to diplomatic mediation. The complexity of the conflict, which has national, regional, and international levels of structure, and the multiplicity of the players involved have provided new dimensions for studies in political conflict resolution. Building on previous research with respect to diplomatic mediation in the Syrian conflict, this paper conducts a comparative analysis between the mediation mission of the League of Arab States and that of the two first envoys of the United Nations, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi, using five basic challenges of mediation as an analytical tool: Mission and Mandate, Impartiality and Inclusivity, Entry and Consent, Strategy, and Leverage. It concludes that none of the mediation missions for Syria that are covered by this paper have addressed the following factors: the root causes and psychological drivers of the direct conflicting parties, the independence of the mediation agency from indirect parties involved in the conflict, and the neutralization of the opposition from regional funding. Although not necessarily decisive, overlooking these factors may have contributed to the failure of diplomatic mediations in the Syrian conflict.