Conflict Mediation: Case Studies from Ukraine, the Arctic, and the Caucasus

Paul Dziatkowiec, Director of Mediation and Peace Support at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, will bring a practitioner’s perspective in providing a timely overview of how Track II (unofficial) mediation works in practice, and the challenges it faces in today's changing international environment -- given the decline of multilateralism, a renewed emphasis on hard security considerations and military solutions, the proliferation of mediators, and the emergence of a more transactional style of peacemaking. He will draw on his experiences of mediation and dialogue facilitation in various contexts, including Ukraine, the Arctic and the Caucasus to illustrate some of the dilemmas and pressures impacting the practice of mediation in today’s rapidly evolving international environment. This event is co-sponsored by the Elliott School's Security Policy Studies (SPS) Program, Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA) Program, Institute for Security and Conflict Studies (ISCS), and Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES). Please RSVP here. Speaker: Paul Dziatkowiec has served since 2021 as Director of Mediation and Peace Support at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), where he leads GCSP's High North Talks on Arctic security, among other initiatives. Prior to that, he served for nearly a decade as Project Manager at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), an organization that mediates between protagonists in armed conflicts. At HD, Paul was involved in mediation efforts in diverse conflict settings including Nigeria, Myanmar, Thailand, and Ukraine, where he led HD's efforts to help find a solution to the conflict in Donbas. At HD, for five years he also managed the Oslo Forum, the leading international mediation event that convenes peacemakers, world leaders (up to head of state level), peace process actors and conflict parties. Paul previously worked in the Australian diplomatic service, where his positions included roles as Austra…