Power mediators and the ‘illiberal peace’ momentum: ending wars in Libya and Syria

Abstract

The civil conflicts that erupted in the Middle East and North Africa as a consequence of the failure of the 2011 Arab uprisings show the limits of mediation as a tool for conflict resolution and of negotiated settlement based on power-sharing as a solution to conflict. The article examines mediation processes in Libya and Syria, problematising the role played by the nature of mediators as well as the broader ideational framework in which they have been operating. We show that in both contexts there has been a declining influence of pure mediators, exemplified by the sidelining of the United Nations, in parallel to a gradual but steady dispersion of mediation efforts in favour of ‘power’ and biased mediators. This trend reflects a broader rise in arguments in favour of stability, often interpreted in authoritarian shapes at both the local and the international level, a development that normatively and politically undermines the existing international regime dealing with civil wars. Taken together, mediation attempts in Libya and Syria point to the hollowing out of the liberal peace consensus and the consolidation of an alternative framework for conflict resolution based on authoritarian settlement.

Keywords:

• mediation
• conflict resolution
• authoritarian conflict management
• Libya
• Syria

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers, whose constructive and engaging feedback has led to a significant improvement in the quality and originality of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The post of UN Special Envoy for Syria was formerly occupied by Kofi Annan (23 February–2 August 2012), Lakhdar Brahimi (17 August 2012–31 May 2014) and Staffan de Mistura (10 July 2014–31 October 2018) and is currently held by Geir O. Pedersen. The post of UN Special Representative for Libya was previously held by Ian Martin (11 September 2011–17 October 2012), Tarek Mitri (12 September 2012–13 August 2014), Bernardino León (14 August 2014–3 November 2015), Martin Kobler (4 November 2015–22 June 2017) and Ghassan Salamé (22 June 2017–2 March 2020), and is currently held by Stephanie Williams.

2 The Election Law (law no. 4/2012) established a mixed parallel system where 120 representatives (individuals) were elected through a majority system and 80 representatives (expression of political parties) through a closed-party list proportional system (EU Election Assessment Team 2012).

3 Worried about the expansion of the Islamic State in Libya, Western governments pressured for a rapid conclusion of the negotiation process. The United States and Italy, in particular, subordinated their military intervention against the Islamic State to the request of international support from a legitimate Libyan government. Similarly, the EU, and in particular Italy, urgently needed an official interlocutor to deal with migration flows from the Libyan shores (Asseburg, Lacher, and Transfeld 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Irene Costantini

Irene Costantini is Research Fellow at Università Orientale in Naples. She holds a PhD from the University of Trento (School of International Studies). Her research interests include the politics of international interventions in conflict affected-contexts and post-conflict transition, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa region. She has been teaching and/or researching, among other pursuits, at the Austrian Institute of International Affairs (Austria), the University of Bologna (Italy), the Middle East Research Institute (Erbil, Iraq), and the University of York (UK). She has published in various academic journals, including International Peacekeeping, Ethnicities, Ethnopolitics and Conflict, Security & Development, and she is the author of Statebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa: The Aftermath of Regime Change (Routledge, 2018).

Ruth Hanau Santini

Ruth Hanau Santini is Associate Professor of politics and international relations at Università Orientale in Naples and is an Associate Fellow at the University of St. Andrews. Her work focuses on the notion of statehood, citizenship and security in the Arab world. She has published in various academic journals including Small Wars and Insurgencies, The International Spectator, Middle Eastern Studies and Mediterranean Politics. She has a recent monograph with Palgrave, Limited Statehood in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia: Citizenship, Economy and Security; and she co-edited Rethinking Statehood in the Middle East and North Africa with Abel Polese, and Limited Statehood and Informal Governance in the Middle East and Africa with Abel Polese and Robert Kevlihan.