Originally from World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

ABSTRACT

In November 1995, the world witnessed a final push by the United States (“US”) Administration to bring an end to the three-and-a-half-year long bloodshed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Bosnia”).  Then-US President Bill Clinton charged a team of US mediators—led by Richard Holbrooke—to sit the warring parties at the same table and move the armed conflict in Bosnia to the pages of history.  After more than three years of an apparent stalemate in the war of Ukraine, the political, diplomatic, and academic discourse is increasingly discussing the option of ending the conflict through peace talks.  If some sort of a peace conference is in fact considered to end the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Dayton Peace Process (“DPP”) could offer numerous lessons. 

This article explains the strategy used by the US mediators during the peace talks held in the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio between November 1, 1995 and November 21, 1995, and draws parallels with a potential mediation process of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  By way of context, Section II briefly lays out the background of the armed conflict in Bosnia and describes previous unsuccessful mediation endeavors to end a war.  Section III focuses on the team of US mediators and describes their preparation ahead of the talks, their game plan, and the rules, location, and setting of the mediation conference. Section IV analyzes the individual mediation techniques, tactics, and methods employed by the US mediators during the DPP.  Section V points out some major failures of the US mediators. Section VI underscores the applicability of some of the most important lessons learned in Dayton to a potential mediation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.