"Rethinking Mediation: Resolving Religious Conflicts"

2018-02-05

"Rethinking Mediation: Resolving Religious Conflicts”. The Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich yesterday published a policy brief written by project leader Prof. Isak Svensson, project coordinator Daniel Finnbogason, and Jonas Baumann (Mediation Support Team, CSS). 

The authors take note of the increase in armed conflicts fought over religiously defined issues (so-called “religious issue conflicts”) and the particular challenges these conflicts may pose to conflict resolution. To strengthen the prospects for conflict resolution in religious issue conflicts, they argue for the importance of disentangling the religious from the political components and adapting classical conflict resolution tools to better deal with differences in religious beliefs. The article is available here.

The article is part of the Policy Perspectives series edited by the CSS. The CSS is a center of competence for Swiss and international security policy. It offers security policy expertise in research, teaching, and consultancy. The CSS promotes understanding of security policy challenges as a contribution to a more peaceful world. Its work is independent, practice-relevant, and based on a sound academic footing.