Evaluating the explanatory value of Brahimi And Ahmed’s Seven Deadly Sins Of Mediation : the case of the Malagasy mediation of 2009-2014

Abstract

The pursuit of international peace and security continues to lead international actors to pacify conflicts that could potentially evolve into or have already employed violence. In line with this pursuit, international mediation practitioners, Lakhdar Brahimi and Salman Ahmed, have observed seven variables, which they refer to as ‘The seven deadly sins of mediation’, that contribute to ineffective mediation and consequentially jeopardise the quality of the resultant peace. Testifying that mediation is a difficult undertaking, the 2009-2014 mediation process in Madagascar experienced multiple challenges and the resultant peace has been described as fragile. Brahimi and Ahmed’s work is applied in this study as an analytical framework to evaluate the mediation process in Madagascar during the period 2009-2014, and thus indicate the explanatory value of the framework itself. The research links challenges faced by the Malagasy mediation to six of the seven original sins in the framework, indicating that the framework has some explanatory value. The research further demonstrates that the identification of the sins in a mediation process forebodes a strong predisposition to ineffective mediation, yet each mediation case may present an additional sin or sins to append to Brahimi and Ahmed’s original list. Through scrutinizing the events of the Malagasy mediation, the study identifies an additional problem; the lack of a clear mandate, to have been catalytic to the mediation’s challenges and ineffectiveness, as well as the fragile resultant peace.