Description
As the UN-sponsored peace processes in Syria and Yemen stagger on, it is imperative we investigate the previous attempts made to negotiate a resolution to these two crises. This paper will therefore explore the international community’s peacemaking efforts during the first four years of the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars through the prism of the following research questions: within the recollections of those who participated, do identities seem to have shaped international conflict mediation in Syria and Yemen? Do identities appear to have found expression within the peace process? Did the events of the peace talks themselves play a role in constituting the identities articulated?
Our understanding of the role played by identity, and indeed social forces more broadly, within international conflict mediation is extremely limited; moreover, due to the contemporary nature of the cases selected for investigation, our grasp of the particular characteristics and dynamics of the Syrian and Yemeni mediation attempts is also lacking. I will address this through a thematic analysis of seventy semi-structured interviews I have conducted with those implicated in the peacemaking efforts: the international officials together with the Syrian and Yemeni disputants. I hypothesise that a maelstrom of identities will be of significance to the mediation attempts; that the arena of the UN will have shaped the particular identities projected and crafted during the negotiations; and that a difference in perspectives on precisely which identities influenced the peace talks will be apparent between the disputants and the mediators.
