https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5411-8459
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Abstract
Civil society inclusion has become a widely accepted norm in international peacemaking. Scholars have analysed the impact of inclusion on mediation effectiveness, mediators’ rationales for broadening participation, and the different modalities to include civil society actors. Drawing on the concept of the ‘agency of the governed’ in norms research, this article examines the inclusion norm from the perspective of civil society actors. It conducts a case study of the United Nations (UN) mediation in Syria based on 41 interviews gathered between 2018 and 2020. The article shows how Syrian civil society actors perceived inclusion and compares these views to the dominant international narratives on inclusion. It demonstrates that the link between inclusion and effectiveness is conditional, and that inclusion risks – under certain conditions – to lower legitimacy, disempower civil society, and entrench conflict lines. The article thereby nuances arguments about how inclusion leads to effectiveness by broadening the perspectives on inclusive peacemaking. It has crucial practical implications because mediators may decide on whether and how to design inclusive processes, but civil society actors ultimately determine the effectiveness of such inclusion attempts.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks all the interviewees for having shared their insights. The author is also grateful to Flavia Keller and Marie Holch as well as two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Scholars habitually define norms as inter-subjective understandings regarding the proper behavior of actors in a given context (Klotz Citation1995, 451; Onuf Citation1989, 79).
2 An exception is Cuhadar (Citation2020) who analyses opposition to inclusion, but she locates resistance mostly in the existing power holders, rebel groups, or broader society.
3 An exception is Zanker (Citation2014), but she exclusively focuses on civil society views on legitimate representation.
4 Talks took place in Geneva in January-February 2016, March 2016, April 2016, February-March 2017, March 2017, May 2017, July 2017, and November-December 2017 and exceptionally in Vienna in January 2018.
5 The CSSR still exists but changed its role after the discontinuation of the Intra-Syrian Talks.
6 Available at: http://www.icnl.org/research/library/files/Syria/93-1958-En.pdf, consulted 10.10.2023.
7 See https://cssrweb.org/en/about-the-cssr/, consulted 10.10.2023.
8 Briefing to UN Security Council by Staffan de Mistura, 27.11.2017, New York: UN.
9 Save Our Syria, 02.08.2017, http://www.saveoursyria.org/letter-to-un-special-envoy-from-civil-society.html, consulted 10.10.2023.
10 Interviews: civil society actors (#1) 26.06.2018, (#2) 27.06.2018, (#6) 28.06.2018, (#13) 31.07.2018.
11 Save Our Syria, 02.08.2017, http://www.saveoursyria.org/letter-to-un-special-envoy-from-civil-society.html, consulted 10.10.2023.
12 Interview: civil society actor (#3) 27.06.2018.
13 Interviews: civil society actors (#11) 27.07.2018, (#17) 02.08.2018, (#22) 10.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018.
14 Interviews: civil society actors (#3) 27.06.2018, (#15) 02.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018; mediation team member (#28) 17.08.2018.
15 Interviews: civil society actors (#2) 27.06.2018, (#10) 26.07.2018, (#14) 02.08.2018, (#19) 06.08.2018.
16 Statement by Syrian human rights organizations, 28.11.17, https://www.stj-sy.com/en/view/337, consulted 10.10.2023.
17 Interviews: civil society actors (#11) 27.07.2018, (#15) 02.08.2018, (#17) 02.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018.
18 Interview: civil society actor (#11) 27.07.2018.
19 Interview: mediation team member (#36) 11.12.2018.
20 Interviews: civil society actors (#17) 02.08.2018, (#22) 10.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018.
21 Interviews: civil society actors (#1) 26.06.2018, (#4) 27.06.2018, (#13) 31.07.2018.
22 Interview: civil society actor (#7) 28.06.2018.
23 Interview: civil society actor (#7) 28.06.2018.
24 Interviews: civil society actors (#4) 27.06.2018, (#11) 27.07.2018.
25 Interview: civil society actor (#11) 27.07.2018.
26 Syrian Civil Platform, 15.08.16, http://www.scplatform.net/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Civil-society-participation-in-the-political-process-1.pdf, consulted 10.10.2023.
27 Interview: civil society actor (#3) 27.06.2018.
28 Interviews: civil society actors (#17) 02.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018.
29 Interviews: civil society actors (#1) 26.06.2018, (#23) 13.08.2018; mediation team member (#34) 27.11.2018.
30 Briefing to the UN Security Council by Staffan de Mistura, 18.09.2018.
31 Briefing to the UN Security Council by Staffan de Mistura, 17.10.2018.
32 Interviews: civil society actors (#3) 27.06.2018; (#6) 28.06.2018; (#14) 02.08.2018.
33 Interview: civil society actor (#3) 27.06.2018.
34 Interview: civil society actor (#4) 27.06.2018.
35 Interview: civil society actor (#14) 02.08.2018.
36 Interviews: civil society actors (#3) 27.06.2018; (#6) 28.06.2018; (#14) 02.08.2018, (#15) 02.08.2018.
37 Interview: civil society actor (#14) 02.08.2018.
38 Interviews: civil society actors (#14) 02.08.2018, (#17) 02.08.2018; expert (#31) 24.08.2018; mediation team members (#35) 04.12.2018, (#36) 11.12.2018.
39 Interview: civil society actor (#2) 27.06.2018.
40 The voices missing from Syria’s peace talks, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/3/23/the-voices-missing-from-syrias-peace-talks, consulted 10.10.2023. See also Interviews: civil society actors (#6) 28.06.2018, (#7) 28.06.2018, (#12) 30.07.2018, (#14) 02.08.2018, (#16) 02.08.2018, (#23) 13.08.2018.
41 Interviews: civil society actors (#10) 26.07.2018, (#11) 27.07.2018.
42 Interview: civil society actor (#10) 26.07.2018.
43 Interviews: civil society actors (#7) 28.06.2018, (#17) 02.08.2018.
44 Interview: civil society actor (#7) 28.06.2018.
45 Interview: civil society actor (#7) 28.06.2018.
46 Interview: civil society actor (#16) 02.08.2018.
47 Briefing to the UN Security Council by Staffan de Mistura, 16.05.2018.
48 Interviews: civil society actors (#2) 27.06.2018, (#6) 28.06.2018, (#7) 28.06.2018, (#12) 30.07.2018, (#14) 02.08.2018, (#16) 02.08.2018, (#29) 17.08.2018, (#30) 24.08.2018, (#32) 30.08.2018.
49 Interview: civil society actor (#16) 02.08.2018.
50 Interviews: civil society actors (#2) 27.06.2018, (#3) 27.06.2018, (#12) 30.07.2018; expert (#24) 13.08.2018; mediation team member (#36) 11.12.2018.
51 Interview: civil society actor (#3) 27.06.2018.
52 Interview: civil society actor (#2) 27.06.2018.
53 Interview: civil society actor (#12) 30.07.2018.
54 Interview: civil society actor (#12) 30.07.2018.
55 Interview: mediation team member (#36) 11.12.2018.
56 Interview: civil society actor (#3) 27.06.2018.
57 Interviews: civil society actors (#14) 02.08.2018, (#15) 02.08.2018, (#16) 02.08.2018, (#23) 13.08.2018; mediation team member (#36) 11.12.2018.
58 Interview: civil society actor (#11) 27.07.2018.
59 Interview: civil society actor (#6) 28.06.2018.
60 Interviews: civil society actors (#6) 28.06.2018, (#15) 02.08.2018.
61 Interviews: civil society actors (#6) 28.06.2018, (#7) 28.06.2018, (#9) 29.06.2018; mediation team member (#36) 11.12.2018.
62 Interviews: civil society actors (#1) 26.06.2018, (#4) 27.06.2018, (#6) 28.06.2018, (#7) 28.06.2018, (#14) 02.08.2018.
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Sara Hellmüller
Sara Hellmüller is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich. Prior to joining ETH Zurich, Sara was SNSF Assistant Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Visiting Scholar at Oxford University. Before that, she was Senior Researcher at swisspeace and a Lecturer at the University of Basel and held visiting positions at the University of Montreal (Canada), Columbia University (US), and the University of Bunia (DR Congo). Sara’s research focuses on peace processes, particularly UN peace missions in various world orders, the role of norms in peace promotion, local and international peacebuilding (especially in Syria and DR Congo), as well as knowledge production on peace and conflict. She has over a decade of experience conducting research in conflict-affected contexts and has spent more than a year in eastern DR Congo.